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THE CHARM OF

THE ENGLISH
VILLAGE

BYEH.D1TCHFIELDAK
ILLUSTRATED BY
SYDNEY R. JONES

CONTENTS

I PAGE

THE VILLAGE ...... i

II
THE VILLAGE CHURCH - - - - - 23

III
MANORS, FARMS, AND RECTORIES - - - H

IV
COTTAGE ARCHITECTURE - - - - +7

DETAILS, DECORATION, (5^- INTERIORS OF COTTAGES 72

VI
VILLAGE GARDENS - - - - - 83

VII
INNS, SHOPS, AND MILLS - - - - - 95

VIII
ALMSHOUSES AND GRAMMAR SCHOOLS - - iii

IX
VILLAGE CROSSES, GREENS, AND OLD-TIME

PUNISHMENTS - - - - - 119

BARNS AND DOVECOTES - - - - - LH

XI
OLD ROADS, BRIDGES, AND RIVERS - - -142

XII
SUNDIALS AND WEATHERCOCKS - - - iS'

INDEX -------- 161

THE CHARM
OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

THE VILLAGE

NO country in the world can boast of possessing
rural homes and villages which have half the
charm and picturesqueness of our English
cottages and hamlets. Wander where you will,
in Italy or Switzerland, France or Germany, and when you
return home you will be bound to confess that in no foreign
land have you seen a village which for beauty and interest
can compare with the scattered hamlets of our English land.
These others may be surrounded by grander scenery and
finer landscapes. The monotonous blue sea of the Mediter-
ranean may lave their feet ; lofty, snow-clad mountains may
tower above chalets and homesteads ; the romance of the
Rhine, the vine-clad slopes, may produce a certain amount of
attractiveness ; but when you return to England and contrast
our peaceful homely villages with all that you have seen, you
will have learned to appreciate their real charm. They have
to be known in order that they may be loved. They do not
force themselves upon our notice. The hasty visitor may
pass them by, and miss half their attractiveness. They have
to be wooed in varying moods in order that they may display
their charms, when the blossoms are bright in the village

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

orchards, when the sun shines on the streams and pools and
gleams upon the glories of old thatch, when autumn has
tinged the trees with golden tints, or when the hoar-frost
makes their bare branches beautiful again with new and
glistening foliao;e. Not even in their summer garb do they
look more beautiful.

One of the causes of the charm ot an English village
arises from the sense of their stability. Nothing changes in
our country life. The old tower of the village church that
has looked down upon generation after generation of the
inhabitants seems to say, " J e suis^ je reste. All things
change but I. I see the infant brought here to be christened.
A few years pass ; the babe has grown to be an old man and
is borne here, and sleeps under my shadow. Age after age
passes, but I survive." One of the most graceful of
English writers tells tenderly ot this sense of the stability
of our village life : — " On the morning of Charles I's exe-
cution,— in the winters and springs when Elizabeth v/as
Queen, — when Becket lay dead on Canterbury steps, — when
Harold was on his way to Senlac, — that hill, that path were
there — sheep were climbing it, and shepherds were herding
them. It has been so since England began — it will be so
when 1 am dead. We are only shadows that pass. But
England lives always — and shall live."^

Another charm of our villages is their variety. There
are no two villages exactly the same. Each one possesses its
own individuality, its own history, peculiarities, and architec-
tural distinction. Church, manor-house, farm and cottage,
differ somewhat in each village. You never see two churches
or two houses exactly alike, just as the Great Architect scarcely
ever has framed two faces exactly similar. It is true that
the style is traditional, that each son learned from his sire
how to build, and followed the plans and methods of his
forefathers ; but he never slavishly imitated their work.

^ Mrs. Humphry Ward, The Testing of Diana Mal/ory.

WEOI?LK^■, HKREI ORDSHIRK

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

He introduced improvements devised by his own ingenuity
and skill, created picturesque effects which added beauty to
the building. Sometimes his purse was full with the price
ot his rich fleeces, and he could afford to adorn his home
with more elaborate decoration ; sometimes res angusta domi^
when times were bad, compelled him to aim at greater
simplicity with no less satisfactory results.

Another cause of variety in the appearance of our village
buildings is the different nature of the materials used in their
construction. Geology plays no small part in the production
ot various styles ot village architecture. In the days of our
forefathers, in Elizabethan or Jacobean times, there were no
railroads to transport slates from Wales, or dump down
wagon-loads of bricks or beams of timber in a country that
possessed good stone-quarries. They were obliged to use the
materials which nature in their own district afforded. This
was the great secret of their success. Nature's productions
harmonise best with the face of nature in the district where
they are produced. Alien buildings have always an un-
satisfactory appearance ; and if we modern folk would build
with good effect, we must use the natural material provided
by the quarries, or woods, or clay-pits indigenous to the
district, and not transport our materials from afar.

There is^ an immense variety in the building stone of
England. There are the sandstones ; the Old Red Sand-
stone of Cheshire, Shropshire, and Herefordshire, which
cannot long resist the weather, but is a beautiful material
and harmonises well with the surrounding scenery ; the
New Sandstone of Tunbridge Wells and many places in
Yorkshire, and is extremely durable ; the Reigate variety,
the best of the fircstones which the old builders used
for the stately castle of Windsor, Hampton Court, and
other palatial buildings round London. Then there are
the limestone quarries, which yield the best of material
for building. You see splendid edifices all along the course

FARI.EK.H HUNT, FR FORD, SOMERSET

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

of this formation extending from Somerset through the
Midlands to the dales of Yorkshire. Chilmark supplied
the grand stone for Salisbury Cathedral and Wilton Abbey ;
Tottenhoe in the Midlands gave us Dunstable Church and
Woburn Abbey and Luton ; Belvoir and Chatsworth de-
rived their stone from Worksworth, Derbyshire ; Ancaster
in Lincolnshire has yielded material for many good buildings ;

BERRYNARF.OR, DEVON

and Tadcaster has built York Minster, Beverley, and Ripon.
Kentish rag found near Maidstone is as hard as iron, but is
good for rough walling. Then there is the great division of
oolitic limestone, of which the Barnack, Bath, and Portland
oolites are the best. All these quarries have yielded material
for great buildings as well as for the humbler village churches,
cottages, and manor-houses which it is our pleasure to visit.
Where stone is scarce and forests plentiful our builders

[.I

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

made use of timber, especially in the south-eastern district,
where halt-timbered houses form a wondrous charm to all
who admire their beauties. Now we get our timber from
Russia, Norway, Sweden, and America ; but our ancestors
loved nothing more than good old English oak, and oak
abounded in many parts of the country, in the south-eastern
counties, Herefordshire, Shropshire, Cheshire, and Lanca-
shire, where some grand timber houses may be found. Brick
and flint are the principal substances of East Anglia building
and in many other parts ot England ; and houses built of
the dark, dull, thin old bricks, not of the great staring modern
varieties, are very charming, especially when they are seen
against a backo-round ot wooded hills.

Cornish cottages are built of granite and cling to the
valley sides, so that one can hardly distinguish between the
living rock and the built wall. The moor-side dwellings on
the rugged hills of Cumberland and Westmoreland are also
constructed of granite and roofed with slate, and look lonely
and desolate in their bleak surroundino-s.

There is, therefore, an endless variety in the style,
architecture, and appearance ot our villages which is one
of their chief charms. Our artist transports us to various
parts of England, and his drawings show the immense variety
in the appearances of our villages. He has travelled through
many counties, sketching with skilful pen each beautiful
view, each characteristic building. We journey with him
to the West and note the fine "black and white" houses
in Weobley village, Herefordshire (p. 3), the picturesque
village of Farleigh Hungerford (p. 5), six miles from Bath, and
some old cottages at Berrynarbor, Devon. Fishing villages
on the sea-coast have a style of their own with their little
harbours, wooden piers, and their fishing boats. An example
of one of these quaint old ports is shown in the sketch of
Porlock Weir, Somerset. Northwards we fly to picturesque
Derbyshire, where high towering peaks and lovely scenery

^•s^

STANTON- IN-THE-PEAK, DERBYSHIRE

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

add again another element of variety to the appearance of the
villages that nestle among the hills, and where good building
stone affords a fine material for the erection of village
dwellintj- places. We see the little village of Stoney
Middleton encircled by rocks and hills, and Stanton-in-the
Peak, a pretty glimpse of a village street. Northampton-

""1 n

STOXEY MIDDLETON, DERBYSHIRE

shire, too, has some grand stone for building purposes. No
county is richer than this one for its noble churches. A
typical Northamptonshire village is Moreton Pinkney, of
which a sketch is shown.

The three counties which compose the Oxford diocese,
Berks, Bucks, and Oxfordshire, have many pretty villages.

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THE VILLAGE

Sutton Courtney, Berks, reminds us of the monks of
Abingdon who had a grange there, and of the noble family
of the Courtneys who held one of the manors and possessed
a manor-house, which retains a Norman doorway and the
chapel. West Wycombe, Bucks, is a picturesque village (p. 14)

WATLINGTON, OXON

Stretching along the main road towards Stokenchurch, famous
for its extraordinary church built in 1763 by Lord le
Despencer, Francis Dashwood, one of the Medmenham
" monks "ot evil fame. The building shown on the right
of the sketch has a projecting clock and is known as the
church-loft. Beneath it are labourers' cottages. Watlington
is a small market-town, scarcely larger than a village. The

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

sketch shows the old market-house built in 1664 by Thomas
Stonor, standing at the meeting of four cross-roads. It is
not unlike that of Ross on the Wye, and, with its mullioned
windows, high pointed gables, and dark arches, is a favourite
subject for artists.

A good example of a Suffolk village is shown in the
sketch of Cavendish (p. 17), with its church and cottages

WEST WYCOMBK, BUCKS

clustering round it like children holding the gown of their
good mother, and in the foreground the village green, the
scene of many a rural revel. Biddenden, Kent, reminds us of
the famous maids who left a bequest for the distributing
of doles of bread and cheese on Easter Sunday, and of the
remarkable cakes, each stamped with a representation of the
foundresses of the feast, who are supposed to have been
linked together like the Siamese Twins. This quiet and

SELBORNE, HANTS, FROM THE HANGER

. THE VILLAGE

remote village possesses some charming half-timbered cottages,
as the sketch shows.

A pleasing sketch of historic Selborne, Hants, the village
immortalised by Gilbert White, is shown, and the beauties
of Ringwood stand revealed when viewed in the subdued
light of a stormy sunset. The Isle of Wight abounds with
fine specimens of picturesque villages and prettily situated
cottages. A view of Carisbrook taken from the castle hill

i'»»J'>-«'- 5

CAVENDISH, SUFFOLK

is shown (p. 21), and of Godshill village (p. 19), with its
thatched cottages and good church tower.

In spite of the endless variety of our villages it is not
difficult to note their main characteristics, and to try to
describe a typical example. We see arising above the trees
the village church, the centre of the old village life, both
religious, secular, and social. The building has been altered
and added to at various times, and now shows, writ in stone,
its strange and varied history. The work ot Norman
masons and of the builders of subsequent periods can be

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

seen in its walls and sculptures, and also the hand of " re-
storers " who have dealt hardly with its beauties, and in
trying to renovate have often destroyed its chief attractions.
We will examine it more particularly in a subsequent chapter.

Nestling amid the trees we see the manor-house, the
abode of the squire, an ancient dwelling-place of Tudor or
Jacobean design, surrounded by a moat, with a good terrace-
walk in front, and a formal garden with fountain and sun-
dial and beds in arabesque. It seems to look down upon
the village with a sort of protecting air. Near at hand are
some old farm-houses, nobly built, with no vain pretension
about them. Carefully thatched ricks and barns and stables
and cow-sheds stand around them.

There is a village inn with its curiously painted sign-
board which has a story to tell of the old coaching days,
and of the great people who used to travel along the main
roads and were sometimes snowed up in a drift just below
" the Magpie," but could always find good accommodation
in the inn, beds with lavender-scented sheets, plain, well-
cooked English joints, and every attention. Perhaps the
village can boast of an ancient castle or a monastery, the
ruins of which add beauty and picturesqueness to its ap-
pearance.

An old almshouse, a peaceful retreat for the aged and
infirm, built by some pious benefactor in ages long gone
by, attracts our gaze, a beautiful Jacobean structure, perhaps,
with the chapel in one wing and the master's house in the
■other. Nor did the good people of former days forget the
advantages of education. There is an old school which modern
Government inspectors can scarcely be persuaded to allow
to live, because it is not framed according to modern plans
and ideas. Some villages can boast of a grammar school,
too — Secondary Schools they call them now — the buildings
ot which are not the least attractive features of the place.

The village green still remains to remind us of the gaiety

fi^4S«

CARISHROOK FROM THli CASTLIi HILL, ISLE OF WIGHT

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

of old village lite, where the old country dances were in-
dulged in by the villagers, and the merry May-pole reared.
There they held their rural sports, and fought bouts of
quarter-staff and cudgel-play, and played pipe and tabor at
many a rustic feast.

No country in the world has so many beautiful examples
cf cottao-e architecture as EnMand. We will examine, with
the aid of our artist, many of these old buildings with the
thatched roofs and general comeliness. The old village
crosses, too, will arrest our attention, and much else that
interests us, as we walk through the streets and lanes of an
English village. With our artist's aid we will examine each
feature of the village more particularly. We need not con-
cern ourselves now with the buried treasure of old village
history, though these constitute some of its chiefest at-
tractions. It will be enough for us to use our eyes and note
each beauty and perfection, and thus try to learn something
of the charm of an English village.

THE VILLAGE CHURCH

IN the centre of the village stands the church, always
the most important and interesting building in the
place. It appears in several of our illustrations of
typical English villages. In the view of King's
Norton, with the village green in the foreground and the
half-timbered houses, the lofty spire of the church rises
high above the trees and whispers a sursiim corda. Ditcheat
Church (p. 27) stands in a region famous for its noble ecclesi-
astical edifices and fine towers. It is mainly fifteenth-century
work. We will inspect an ordinary village church which has
not been too much " restored " or renovated, and observe its
numerous interesting features.

First, at the entrance of " God's acre " stands the lych-
gate, the ga^e of the dead, usually protected by a broad
overspreading gable roof in order that those who accom-
pany the bodies of the faithful to their last resting-place may
meet before going to the church, and may be protected from
the weather. The gate at Clun, Shropshire (p. 26), is shown
in our illustrations, a graceful four-gabled structure with
tiled roof. The well-known gate at Bray, Berkshire, has a
room over it. Entering the churchyard we recall Gray's
poem, and note the place wherein

The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep,

too often left uncared for, like that shown in the sketch
at Shere (p. 29). The quaint inscriptions on the gravestones,

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

the curious productions of a rustic muse, excite interest, and
the sombreness of the scene is relieved by many a touch of
strange humour, such as the lines in memory of a parish
clerk in Shenley churchyard, who was also a bricklayer :

Silent in dust lies mouldering here
A Parish clerk of voice most clear.
None Joseph Rogers could excel
In laying bricks or singing well ;
Though snapp'd his line, laid by his rod,
We build for him our hopes in God.

The church itself is an ancient structure. It consists of
a nave and chancel, and perhaps one or two aisles have been
added to the nave, or a chantry chapel built on the north
or south side of the chancel containing the tombs and
monuments of some illustrious family connected with the
place. Many Norman churches are cruciform, with a low
tower rising at the intersection of the nave with the tran-
septs. Frequently the tower stands at the west end. Various
kinds of towers exist. We have the low Norman tower,
frequently raised in subsequent periods and surmounted
with a spire, the weight of which has sorely tried the early
Norman building, and has often caused it to collapse ; round
towers, towers highly enriched with turrets and parapets and
crowned with a lofty spire. The external buttresses which
support the walls indicate very clearly the period of the
building. Norman buttresses extend very little from the
walls, which were so strong that they needed little external
support. As the builders strove after lightness and increased
the size of the windows, larger and more extended buttresses
were needed, until we get to flying buttresses, i.e. those of
an outer wall connected by an arch to those of an inner,
producing very graceful and beautiful effects. Niches for
statues are often carved on the buttresses. Curious gro-
tesquely carved heads and figures look down upon us from
the gutters of the roofs — called gargoyles. The style and

king's NORTON FROM THE GREEN, WORCESTERSHIRE

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

period of the windows are no indication of the age of the
walls in which they appear. Very frequently windows of a
later style were inserted in place of others of an older age.
Thus Norman walls frequently have Perpendicular windows.
The porch is a large structure with a gable having barge-
boards similar to those seen in old houses. It is built of

LYCH GATE, CLUN, SHROPSHIRE

wood and roofed with tiles. There are seats on either side
the porch. Sometimes we have stone porches with a room
above, called a parvise, which occasionally has a piscina,
showing that there must have been an altar there. This
chamber was used as a priest's room, or by the custodian of
the church who guarded its treasures ; in some cases as an
anchor-hold, or room set apart for the use of an anchorite

'7.

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THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

or recluse. The doors of churches are an interesting study.
Here in this typical village church we find a doorway em-
bellished with curious Romanesque carving, the only remains
of the old Norman church, except that the wall in which it
is placed is probably of the same date, though it is pierced
by a lancet and two Perpendicular windows. This doorway
has a succession of receding semicircular arches enriched
with a variety of sculptured mouldings, zigzag, cable, star,
embattled, and beak-heads. These last are monsters with
long beaks, meant to represent the devil and his angels ready
to pounce upon the souls of those who come to church in
a heedless and irreverent spirit. The door itself is the
original one with large elaborate crescent-shaped hinges and
a triple strap ornamented with scrolls and foliage, like that
at Stillingfleet. These strong doors were intended to pro-
tect the church from marauders, from northern pirates, and
such-like folk. Above the door is the tympanum on which
is carved the Agnus Dei. A great variety of subjects appear on
these tympana — Adam and Eve, St. George and the Dragon,
the Tree of Life, signs of the Zodiac, and very many other
symbolical representations. Above the doorway is a niche,
now shorn of its image, but probably once containing the
statue of our Lord or the Virgin. You will notice on the
stones of the doorway rude crosses scratched with a knife
which are votive crosses made hundreds of years ago by
persons who had made some vow, or desired thus mutely
to express their thankfulness for some special and private
mercy.

On entering the church we see the font, an old Norman
one, decorated with mouldings and sculpture. It is lined with
lead, and on the sides are rudely carved the four evangelists
with their symbols. The roof is much flatter than an
earlier one which once spanned the church, as the marks on
the tower show. This one was erected in the fifteenth
century with tie-beams extending from wall to wall, and

GOU S ACRE, SHERE, SURREY

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

resting on uprights placed on corbels, and underneath the
beams are curved bracing-ribs which meet in the centre of the
beam and form an arch. Above the centre of the beam is
a king-post, and the vacant space is occupied by pierced
panels. This sloping portion of the roof is divided into
squares by pieces of timber called purlins, which are adorned
with mouldings and bosses at their intersections.

The nave is now filled with pews ; most of them are quite
new, but in one corner we find a few of the old seats richly

HOUR-GLASS BRACKET, SOUTH
STOKE CHURCH, OXON

carved with poppy-heads, which, 1 need not say, have nothing
to do with the flower. Happily all the old-fashioned high
square pews which once disfigured the church have been
removed, and these modern seats are somewhat like the more
primitive models.

There is a very fine Jacobean pulpit similar to that at
Little Hadham Church, Hertfordshire, though not quite so
elaborate. In 1603 churchwardens were ordered to provide
in every church a " comely and decent pulpit," and although
some few mediaeval examples remain, most of our pulpits have

LITTLE HADHAM CHURCH, HERTFORDSHIRE

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

been erected since the first year of King James L A neces-
sary accessory to the pulpit in the days of long sermons was
the hour-glass, which a merciless preacher would sometimes
turn and " have another glass." Very few of the actual glasses
remain, but we have numerous examples of beautiful iron-
work brackets which once supported the preacher's timepiece.
A fine specimen is shown in our illustrations. It is in the
church of South Stoke, Oxfordshire, and at Hurst and
Binfield in Berkshire we have some magnificent examples of
elaborate ironwork hour-orlass stands.

The church of Little Hadham retains its screen. Very
many have been destroyed. Our typical church has a richly
carved example painted and gilded, and on the north of the
chancel arch is a staircase which once led to the rood-loft,
where was a crucifix with the images of the Virgin and St. John
on each side. The old stone altar marked with its five crosses
has disappeared. It was destroyed at the Reformation, but
there is a good modern altar with a fine old reredos richly
ornamented with niches which formerly held statues. These
have all disappeared. The east window contains some good
decorated glass. The piscina and sedilia with their fine carv-
ings all merit attention, and the aumbries now shorn of their
doors wherein the church plate was formerly kept. The
Easter sepulchre, the wooden stalls with their quaintly carved
misereres (this church of ours was once attached to a

monastic cell connected with the great abbey of A ), must

all be noticed, and the verger will tell you that these were
ingenious traps for sleepy monks, who when the heavy seat fell
down with a loud bang, were detected in slumber and were
forced to do penance ; but if you are wise, you will not
believe him. He will also tell you that a little low side
window was really a leper's window, through which the poor
afflicted one could view the elevativJii of the host ; and again,
if you are wise, you will not believe him, as you know the
lepers were not even allowed to enter the churchyard.

THE VILLAGE CHURCH

Some curious old mural paintings have recently been dis-
covered beneath layers of whitewash, and we notice the
figure of St. Nicholas raising to life the three youths thrown
into a tub, and a huge St. Christopher, a very favourite
subject, as a glance at him would secure the observer trom
violent death throughout the day, and protect him from
wandering thoughts during the service.

Then there are the brasses to examine, the beautiful
monuments of old knights and warriors, fine ladies with
great ruffs praying at faldstools opposite their husbands with
a crowd of children beneath them, and gigantic monuments
of great ladies who possessed every imaginable virtue.
Some of the knights have their legs crossed, and the vicar
or the verger will tell you that they had fought in the
crusades. That one whose feet are crossed at the ankles
went to one crusade ; that other one whose feet are crossed
at the knees fought twice in the Holy Land ; and the third
knight with feet crossed at the thighs fought three times in
the Holy Wars. Again you will not believe him, if you are
wise, because you know that these interpretations of a curious
fashion are fallacious, that some knights who fought in the
crusades are not so represented, and that others who never
left England have their feet crossed. It was a passing whim
or fashion and has no particular signification.

The bells with their quaint Inscriptions, if you have a mind
to ascend the belfry tower, may interest you, and the church
plate, and the contents of the Parish Chest, invite inspection.
The chest itself, with its elaborate lock and iron-bound sides,
is a great treasure. One of the chief charms of an English
village is to ransack this chest and examine carefully the
registers, the churchwardens' accounts, the briefs, and many
an Old document that Time has failed to destroy. But this
would lead us into too wide a field, and we must content
ourselves with but a hasty survey of the village church and all
the varied beauties and interesting objects which it contains.

" 3 3

Ill

MANORS, FARMS, AND RECTORIES

ALMOST every village has its giants as well as its
dwarfs, its tritons as well as its minnows. You
see its grander and finer specimens of English
domestic architecture as well as the humbler dwell-
ings of the poor. We will endeavour to examine in this
chapter the former, the manor-house, the rectory or vicarage,
and the farm-houses, three styles of houses which have much
in common, though they maintain their own characteristics.

Some villages possess a great and important mansion,
wherein some noble family resides, a glorified manor-house,
Elizabethan or Jacobean perhaps, more commonly a Palladian
structure built in the Italian manner, which has supplanted
an earlier house and not improved upon the old English
model. There was at one time a fashion for pulling down
old Tudor or Elizabethan houses and rearing these Italian
mansions. Very grand they are and ornate, but not over
comfortable to live in. A great wit advised the builder of
one of these mansions to hire a room on the other side of
the road, and spend his time looking at his Palladian house,
but to be sure not to live there. But our typical village
does not possess a mansion ; no Longleat or Haddon, no
Lacock or Hardwick add to its importance ; nor is it fortu-
nate enough to have a castle. Its charm would be mightily
increased if it could boast of such a venerable building,
though the castle were but a ruin, a memorial of ancient
state and power. Our artist has depicted one such castle,

HURSTMONCEUX CASTLE, SUSSEX

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

that of Hurstmonceux, in Sussex, which was at one time
the largest and finest of the commoners' houses in the county,
and was built in the fifteenth century. It was built of hard
Flemish brick, with windows, door-cases, and copings of
stone. The brickwork, sometimes said to be the earliest in
England,^ has long worn a greyish tint. The sketch shows
the entrance gateway flanked by two towers with machiola-
tions and pierced with embrasures tor bowmen. The two
towers are crowned by turrets, named the watch and signal
turrets. A moat surrounds the castle, and was spanned by
a drawbridofe, the vertical slits on each side of the central
recessed window being fitted with levers for raisins: and lower-
ing the bridge. Over the archway are the arms of the
Fiennes family, a wolf-dog with its paws on a banner and
three lions rampant. If we were to pass through this gate
we should find the ruins of an immense castle, a veritable
town. Grouped round the green court, which is girt by a
cloister, we see the remains of the great hall, a noble room,
the postern gate with chapel over it, prison, pantries, bird
gallery, armour gallery, ale-cellar, a grand staircase, with
drawing-room, great parlour, bedchambers sufficient to
lodge a garrison, and ladies' bower ; while from the Pump
Court we see the laundry, brewhouse. bakehouse, and a
vast kitchen, still-room, confectioner's room, and countless
other apartments. The castle was indeed a noble and hos-
pitable mansion in olden time. The castle was built in the
days of transition, when the strong uncomfortable fortress
-vvas giving place to a more luxurious mansion, though the
necessity of strong walls and gates had not quite passed
.-away. We need not concern ourselves with its history.
Its name preserves the memories of two ancient families,
De Hurst and De Monceaux, and was built in 1440 by Sir
Roger Fiennes, one of the heroes of Agincourt and treasurer

1 Little Wcnham Hall, Suffolk, built of brick in the time of Henry III,
is older than Hurstmonceux, and also the chapel of Little Coggeshall, Lssex.

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

of Henry VL His descendants had the title of Lord Dacre
conferred upon them, and the last became Earl of Sussex,
marrying a natural daughter of Charles II, and being im-
pecunious sold the property. Its subsequent history does
not concern us. The ghosts of its great owners seem to
haunt the scene of their former splendour, and one noted
uneasy spirit inhabited Drummer's hall, and marched along
the battlements beating a devil's tattoo on his drum. But
perhaps he was only a gardener in league with the smugglers,
and used this ghostly means for conveying to them a needful
signal. Ghosts often frequent the old houses of England,
and our artist's sketch of the haunted house, Harvington
Hall, Worcestershire, which looks delightfully picturesque
in the moonlight, certainly suggests the appearance of a
ghostly resident or visitor. We know of such a house in
Lancashire, which, like Harvington Hall, is encircled by a
moat. It contains a skull in a case let into the wall of the
staircase. This skull has been cast into the moat, buried in
the ground, and removed in many other ways ; but terrible
happenings ensue : storms rage and lightnings flash, and
groans are heard, until the skull is brought back to its niche,
when peace ensues. Some say the skull is that of a Roman
priest beheaded at Lancaster ; others that it once graced the
body of Roger Downes, the last heir of the house, one of
the wildest courtiers of Charles II. These ancient traditions,
ghosts and legends, add greatly to the charm of our old
houses.

Leaving the mansions of the great, we will visit the
usual chief house of the village, the m^anor-house, where the
lord of the manor lived and ruled in former days, adminis-
tered justice, and was the friend and benefactor of every one
in the village. In times gone by the squire was an impor-
tant factor in the village commonwealth. His place was at
home in the old manor-house, and he was known by every
one in the village. Son succeeded father in manor, farm-

MOOR HALL, HUMPHRIES END, NEAR SIROUD, GLOUCESTER

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

house, and cottage, and the relationship of landlord to
tenant, employer to labourer, was intimate and traditional.
Agricultural depression has told heavily on the race of old
squires. Times are changed. Young squires love the ex-
citement of towns and travel. The manor-house is often
closed or let to strangers, and village life is different now
from what it was a century ago.

But the manor-house remains, though frequently it is
used as a farm-house, and has lost its ancient prestige. It
forms a charming feature in the landscape. It is old and
weather-beaten, set in a framework of pines and deciduous
trees, with lawns and shrubberies. Look at the beautiful
illustration of Moor Hall, near Stroud, with its high gables,
tiled roofs, and muUioned windows, and compare it with any
foreign building of the same size, and you will respect the
memories of our English builders. The manor-house at
Wool, Dorset, a county very rich in such buildings, is also
very attractive, approached by a fine stone bridge, and sur-
rounded by trees and farm buildings.

Most of the old manor-houses have given place to Tudor
or Elizabethan structures, but there is a perfect fourteenth-
century example at Little Hempton, near Totnes. It con-
sists of a quadrangle with a small central court, into which
all the windows, except that of the hall, look from sunless
rooms. The hall was heated by a brazier in the centre — at
least, the heat might have been sufficient to thaw numbed
fingers. A gloomy parlour with a fire-place in it, kitchen,
porter's lodge, cellar, and stable, and upstairs one long
dormitory complete the building, which was none too com-
fortable.

Some villages have two manor-houses, and others were
divided into several manors. In Berkshire, at Sutton
Courtney, there are two houses — one formerly attached to
the abbey of Abingdon, the other to the Courtney family.
The great feature was a large hall ; at one end was an entrance

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

passage separating the hall from the buttery or store-room,
and above this the ladies' bower. A chapel was also attached,
sometimes placed at one end of the loft above the hall.
From this elementary plan subsequent manor-houses have
been developed.

The tradition of the central hall lingered on for centuries,
and can be seen still in manor-house, farmstead, and cottage.

FARM-HOUSE NEAR K.NOWLE, WARWICKSHIRE

The central hall with wings at each side, and barns and stables
and cow-sheds completing a quadrangle — this was the ideal
plan of the squire's house, and yeoman-farmer and cottagers
copied the buildings of their betters. The illustration of the
farm-house near Knowle, Warwickshire, is picturesque in
every detail, and shows the maintenance of the tradition of
the central hall. Sometimes there is only one wing, as in
the view of the beautiful old farmstead at Sutton Green,
Oxfordshire, roofed with thatch and covered with creepers.
The half-timbered farm-house at Rowington, Warwickshire,

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

is an old dwelling of early date, probably about the sixteenth
century, which has the same original plan, but has taken to
itself an addition at some later period.

It is beyond our purpose to sketch the growth of domestic
architecture and trace the evolution of the modern mansion

•-— ^'Vr^^-^*^^--

^'^-'-

"*^i., ...

FARM-HOUSE, ROWIXGTOX, WARWICKSHIRE

from the Saxon hall. But there are many old farm-houses
in England, once manor-houses, which retain, in spite of
subsequent alterations, the distinguishing features of mediaeval
architecture. The twelfth century saw a separate sleeping-
chamber for the lord and his lady. In the next century
they dined in a room apart from their servants.

This process of development led to a multiplication of

MANORS, FARMS, AND RECTORIES

rooms and the diminution of the size of the great hall. The
walls were raised, and an upper room was formed under the
roof for sleeping accommodation. In smaller houses, during
the fifteenth century, the hall disappears, and corridors are
introduced in order to give access to the various chambers.
Some of these houses are built in the form of the letters E
and H, which fanciful architectural authorities interpret as
the initials of Henry VIII and Queen Elizabeth. But the
former plan is merely a development ot the hall with wings
at each end and a porch added, and the H is a hall with the
wings considerably extended.

The beautiful Tudor and Elizabethan manor-houses and
palaces built at this time, when English domestic architecture
reached the period of its highest perfection, are too grand
and magnificent for us who are considering humbler abodes.
But the style of their construction is reflected in the farm-
houses and cottao-es. We see in these the same beautiful
gables and projecting upper storeys, the same lattice case-
ments, irregular corners and recesses which present themselves
everywhere, and add a strange beauty to the whole appear-
ance. Such common features link together the cottage,
farm, and manor-house, just as the English character unites
the various elements of our social existence and blends
squire, farmer, and peasant into one community with common
feeling and interests and a mutual respect.

The old rectory is an important house in the village, and
ranks next to the manor-house. It is usually a picturesque
building, and several fourteenth-century parsonages remain,
thou2;h some have been so altered that only small portions
of the old house exist. Mediaeval parsonages survive still
at West Dean, Sussex ; King's Stanley and Notgrove,
Gloucestershire ; Wonstone, Hants ; Helmsley, Yorkshire ;
Shillingford, Berks ; and at Alfriston, Sussex. This last
example follows the usual type of fourteenth-century house,
and consists of a fine hall, the lower part divided off

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

by a screen, a solar of two storeys at one end, and a
kitchen at the other. It is built of oak framework, filled
in with wattle and daub. These old houses show that the
duty of entertaining strangers and travellers was duly recog-
nised by the clergy. There were rooms set apart for guests,
and the large stables attached to rectories and vicarages were
not for the purpose of providing accommodation for the
rector's hunters, but for the steeds of his visitors.

The interior of the rectory speaks of learning and books.
Books line the walls of the study ; they climb the stairs ;
they overflow into dining-room and drawing-room. The
light that shines from the study window is always there.
Country-folk retire early to bed, and the village lights are
soon extinguished ; but that study light is always burning
far into the night, and is scarcely put out before the approach
of dawn calls the labourer from his couch to begin his daily
toil.

IV
COTTAGE ARCHITECTURE

THE building of beautiful cottages is almost a lost
art, if we may judge from the hideous examples
which modern builders are accustomed to rear
amidst beautiful scenery that claimed exemption
from such desecration. " Cottage-building does not pay,"
is the dictum of both farmer, squire, and ierry-builder.
" You cannot get m.ore than two per cent on your money
spent in erecting dwellings for the poor." Hence people are
accustomed to build as cheaply as possible, and to destroy
the beautiful earth and many a rustic paradise by the erection
of these detestable architectural enormities. It has been said
that villas at Hindhead seem to have broken out upon the
once majestic hill like a red skin eruption. There is a
sad contrast between these unsightly edilices with their
glaring brick walls, their slate roofs, their little ungainlv
stunted chimnevs, and the old-fashioned thatched or tiled
dwellings that torm so charming a feature ot English rural
scenerv.

With the aid of our artist we hope to visit manv ot the
humbler examples of English domestic architecture. It is
well that they should be sketched, inspected, admired, and
noted at once, as year by year their numbers are decreasing.
Every year sees the destruction of several of these old
buildings, which a little care and judicious restoration
might have saved. Ruskin's words should be writ in

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

bold big letters at the head of the bye-laws of every
District Council :- —

"Watch an old building with anxious care; guard it as
best you may, and at any cost, from any influence of dilapi-
dation. Count its stones as you would the jewels of a
crown. Set watchers about it, as if at the gate of a besieged
city ; bind it together with iron when it loosens ; stay it
with timber when it declines. Do not care about the un-
sightliness of the aid —better a crutch than a lost limb ; and
do this tenderly and reverently and continually, and many
a generation will still be born and pass away beneath its
shadow."

COTTAGES AT WINSON, GLOUCESTERSHIRE (cOLN VALLEy)

If this sound advice had been universally taken many a
beautiful old cottage would have been spared to us, and our
eyes would not be offended by the wondrous creations of
estate agents and local builders who have no other ambitions
but to build cheaply.

COTTAGE ARCHITECTURE

How different are the old cottages of England. Here is
an admirable description of an ideal rural dwelling written
more than a century ago : — ^

" I figure in my imagination a small house, of odd,
irregular form, with various harmonious colouring, the effects
of weather, time, and accident, the whole environed with
smiling verdure, having a contented, cheerful, inviting aspect,
and a door open to receive a gossip neighbour, or weary,
exhausted traveller. There are many indescribable some-
things that must necessarily combine to give to a dwelling
this distinguishing character. A porch at entrance ; Irregular
breaks in the direction of the walls, one part higher than
the other ; various roofing of different materials, thatch
particularly, boldly projecting ; fronts partly built of brick,
partly weather-boarded, and partly brick-nogging dashed ;
casement window lights, are all conducive and constitute Its
features."

Such Is a cottage which the poet and the painter loves, a
type which is happily not extinct in modern England —

Its roof with reeds and mosses covered o'er,
And honeysuckles climbing round the door ;
While mantling vines along its walls are spread,
And clustering ivy decks the chimney head.

Its garden Is rich with old-fashioned English flowers, and
amongst them we notice roses, pansies, peonies, sweet-
williams, and London Pride, which flourish In the herbaceous
borders that line the approach to the cottage door. It is set
in a framework that enhances its beauties. Dark woods
form the background. In front there Is the village green,
the centre of the amusements of old village life, whereon
children are seen disporting themselves ; the old church is
nigh at hand with its lofty spire. Other graceful dwellings
cluster round the green, and the rude pond, wild hedgerows,
and Irregular plantations complete the picture.

1 Jn Essay on British Cottage Jrchitccturc, by James Malton, 1791^'.

E 49

i THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

Of such a cottage the poet sings : —

Close in the dingle of a wood
Obscured with boughs a cottage stood ;
Sweetbriar decked its lowly door,
And vines spread all the summit o'er ;
An old barn's gable end was seen
Sprinkled with nature's mossy green,
Hard on the right, from whence the flail
Of thrasher sounded down the vale — -
A vale where many a flow'ret gay
Sipt a clear streamlet on its way —
A vale above whose leafy shade
The village steeple shews its head.

Such is the pleasing picture of a rural home, the peculiar,
beautiful, and picturesque feature of English rural scenery,
where dwell

Those calm delights that ask but little room.

The illustrations show many such a gem of cottage archi-
tecture gathered from many counties. The builders of these
used no alien materials. They built surely and well with
substances best suited for their purpose which the neigh-
bourhood afforded. Stone, timber, flint, all were made to
serve their purpose. In the region of good stone quarries
of Gloucestershire and Somerset we find the beautiful cottages
at Winson, and the charming bay in a cottage at Montacute.
This latter house, with its armorial bearings carved beneath
the upper window, has doubtless seen better days, and was
probably a house of some pretensions. Kent and Essex,
where good building stone is scarce, furnish fine examples
of half-timbered cottages.

It is interesting to notice how these timber houses were
built. The materials were inexpensive and easily procurable.
The surrounding woods supplied plenty of oak timber, and
earth and sand, straw or reeds were all that was needed.
Sometimes a solid foundation of stone or brick was built in

COTTAGE ARCHITECTURE

order to protect the woodwork from the damp earth, and
on this were placed horizontal beams. At the corners of the
house very stout upright posts were erected, which were
formed from the trunk of a tree with the root left on it, and

L V

A COTTAGE BAY, MOXTACUTE, SOMERSET

placed upward, this root curving outwards so as to form a
support for the upper storey. A curious and important
feature of these old houses is their projecting storeys. I
have never heard a satisfactory reason given for this strange
construction. I can understand that in towns where space

''■^o;

COTTAGE ARCHITECTURE

was scarce it would have been an advantage to be able to
increase the eize of the upper rooms, but when there was no
restriction as to the ground to be occupied by the house and
land was plentiful, it is difficult to discover why our fore-
fathers constructed their houses on this plan. Possibly the

PART OF A HOUSE AT NEWPORT, ESSEX

fashion was first established of necessity in towns, and the
traditional mode of building was continued in the country.
Some say that by this means our ancestors tried to protect
the lower part of the house from the weather ; others with
some ingenuity suggest that these projecting storeys were in-
tended to form a covered walk for passengers in the streets, and

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

to protect them from the slops which the careless housewife of
Elizabethan times cast recklessly from the upstairs windows.
Projecting upper storeys are not earlier than the reign of
Elizabeth. Their weight necessitated a strong foundation.

We have constructed our foundations, horizontal timber
base, and corner posts, the roots of the trunks being-
cut into brackets both on the outside and inside of the

POUNDSRRIDGE, KENT

house. These strong and massive angle-posts were often
richly carved and moulded. Other upright posts were
erected along the base about seven feet apart. These hori-
zontal timbers were fastened, socketed, or mortised into
the upright beams so as to form square openings, which
were divided into smaller squares by less stout timbers.
Then the foundations of the floor of the upper rooms were
constructed by beams laid across the tops of the upright
beams. The floor of this upper section of the house pro-

-^N---r

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

CONSTRUCTION OF KOOF

jected about two feet beyond that of the lower. Sometimes
the projection was confined to one or two sides of the houses,
but frequently it extended on all the sides. The upper storey
was constructed in an exactly similar fashion, and the timbers
of the roof were then placed in position. Usually beams
^^^ spanned the upper

<;^^*^/^^^s. storey, and at their

centre an upright post,
called a "king- post,"
^ was erected, which sup-
ported a cross-beam
which was held in posi-
tion by braces and fastened at the ends to the slanting beams
of the roof.

A pleasing characteristic of some of the Kent cottages and
farm-houses is the sunken central bay. The two outer bays
have projecting upper storeys ; the central bay has not. The
eaves of the roof extend the whole length of the building,
and that portion over the central bay is supported by curved
braces.

Mr. Ellis, a practical and experienced craftsman, suggests^
there were three types of these half-timbered houses, to which
he has given the names Post and Pan, Transom Framed, and
Intertie Framed work. Frequently these types are varied
and sometimes combined in the same building. The Post
and Pan style is the earliest, and consists of a post and a
panel placed alternately and equally spaced. Upright posts
were placed between the horizontal ground sill and the head-
beam which supported the roof, the spaces between these
vertical posts being filled with clay or wattle and daub.
These posts at first were fixed close together, but by degrees
the builders obtained confidence, set their posts wider apart,
and held them together by transoms. This led them to
adopt the Transom Frame construction, the walls being now

^ In Modern Practical Carpentry, by George Ellis (Batsford, 1906).

COTTAGE ARCHITECTURE

composed of vertical and horizontal timbers forming larger
square or oblong openings. Some of them were used for
doors and windows, and the others filled in with interlaced
hazel-sticks covered with plaster or with brick-nogging.
In order to strengthen the framework straight or curved
beams were introduced at the angles, the latter being formed
from the large limbs
of trees sawn in two.
Intertie Framework
was a kind of re-
versal of the Tran-
som style. Strong
uninterrupted hori-
zontal beams were
its foundation, the
vertical posts being
f r a m e d between
them. Much skill ts^iieM'
and ingenuity were 0^.(^3^^<lS^
displayed in the
decoratinor ot the

panels.

A good example
of cottages built in
the manner which

I have described is given in the illustration of the houses
at Brenchley, Kent (p. 52), a county famous for its half-
timbered dwelling-places. We notice the overhanging upper
storey, the upright timbers placed close together, a sign of
early building, the sunken central bay, tiled roof, and the
little dormer windows jutting out therefrom, which break
the long expanse of roof and add to its picturesqueness.
The portion of the house shown in the illustration is built
in three bays. A bay was the standard of architectural
measurement, and houses were sold or let by the bay. A

VARIETIES OF WALLING FROM HANTS
AND DORSET

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

bay measured roughly sixteen feet, and was the length re-
quired in farm buildings for the standing of two pairs of
oxen. The view of part of the cottage at Newport, Essex
(p. S3)) shows a very fine example. The complete house is an
early example of the Kentish type of sunken central bay, as
already described (p. ^6), of which the upper storey projects
considerably beyond the lower. The upright timbers placed

BRICK AND FLINT COTTAGES, READING STREET, KENT

close together again point to an early date, and it will be
noticed that the interstices are filled in with thin bricks or
tiles arranged in herring-bone fashion, like the stones of
Saxon buildings.' There is a cottage at Lyme Regis where
this arrangement is seen, and in Kent there are numerous
instances of this pleasing variety. The grey oak and the
red brick harmonise well together. Flint and stone in

1 Herring-bone work was formerly considered a characteristic of Saxon
architecture, but it can be seen also in Norman walls.

-.8

^^^H I

MANSELL LACY, HEREFORDSHIRE

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

It-
chequered squares are not uncommon in the latter county.
The panelled window in the upper storey of the Newport
cottage retains some Gothic features, and beneath it there
is a curious carving of a king and queen sitting and startled
by the strains of a celestial choir. One angel is playing on
a harp and the other apparently on an organ.

Another fine Kentish example is shown, a cottage, now an
inn, at Poundsbridge (p. 54). The initials of the builder
are recorded, and also, happily, the date of its construction,
1593. It is an excellent example of a half-timbered house. The
cottage at Great Chesterford (p. ^ ^) is remarkable for the elabo-
rate decoration of the plaster which was accomplished in 1692,
and is probably later than the house itself. This ornamentation
is called Pargetting, to which we shall refer again presently.

The appearance of our cottages has been much altered
since they left the hands of the sixteenth-century craftsman.
One peculiarity of the oak timbers is that they often shrink.
Hence the joints came apart, and being exposed to the
weather became decayed. In consequence of this the build-
ings settled, and new methods had to be devised in order
to make them weatherproof. In order to keep out the rain
the villagers sometimes, especially in Surrey, hung the walls
with tiles which have various shapes, a common one being
semicircular. Artists love to depict these tile-hung houses,
to which age imparts a beautiful colour. Other methods for
preserving these timber-framed cottages were to cover them
with deal boarding or to plaster the walls. Hence beneath
an outer coating of tile or plaster or boards there remains
an old timber-framed house, the construction of which we
have tried to describe.

The mortar used in these old buildinofs is very stronor and
good. An old poet tells of

The morter is maked so well,
So mai no man hit brcke
Wiz no stele.
60

-^^.'^Vvv

^-*i^

■ri

ARROTS MORTON, WORCESTERSHIRE

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

In order to strengthen the mortar used in old Sussex and
Surrey houses and elsewhere, the process of " galleting " or
"garneting" was adopted. The bricklayers used to decorate
the rather wide or uneven mortar joint with small pieces of
black ironstone stuck into the mortar. "Galleting" dates

HINXTON, CAMBRIDGESHIRE

back to Jacobean times, and is not to be found in sixteenth-
century work.

There is often a great variety of walling in the southern
counties. Stone is combined with brick and brick with flint
in a remarkable manner. Examples of this are shown in
our illustrations (p. 57), noticed by our artist in Hants and
Dorset. At Binscombe there are cottages built of rough
Bargate stone with brick dressings. In the neighbourhood of

COTTAGE ARCHITECTURE

Petworth you will see brick used for the label-mouldings and
strings and arches, while the walls and mullions and door-
ways are constructed of stone. Our artist has sketched
some remarkable examples of brick and flint cottages at
Reading Street, Kent (p. 58).

r^-r.

COTTAGE TORCH, UPTON SNODSBURY, WORCESTERSHIRE

Sussex houses are often whitewashed and have thatched
roofs, but sometimes Horsham stone is used. This stone
easily flakes into plates like thick slates, and forms large grey
flat slabs on which "the weather works like a great artist in
harmonies of moss, lichen, and stain. No roofing so com-
bines dignity and homeliness, and no roofing, except possibly
thatch (which, however, is short-lived), so surely passes into

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

the landscape."' It is to be regretted that this stone is no
longer used for rooting-. The slabs are somewhat thick and
heavy, und modern rafters are not adapted to bear their
weight. If you want to have a roof of Horsham stone, you
can only accomplish your purpose by pulling down an old
house and carrying off the slabs. Perhaps the small Cotswold
stone slabs are even more beautiful. Like the Sussex stones,

S -c. J

COTTAGE AT BEAU LIEU, HANTS

these " Stonesfield slates," as they are called, have un-
fortunately fallen into disuse for new buildings, but a praise-
worthy effort is now being made to quarry them, and
again render them available for building purposes. Old
Lancashire and Yorkshire cottages have heavy stone roofs
which somewhat resemble those fashioned with Horsham
slabs.

Very lovely are these country cottages ; peaceful, pic-

^ Hig/Kvays aitd Byzvays in Sussex, by E. V. Lucas.
64

COTTAGE ARCHITECTURE

turesque, pleasant, with their graceful gables and jutting
eaves, altogether delightful. What could be more charming
than that view of a group of cottages at Mansell Lacy,
Herefordshire (p. 59), in its framework of dark trees, or
the old half-timbered house at Abbots Morton, Worcester-

•""-^

MARSTON SICCA, GLOUCESTERSHIRE

shire (p. 61). Even the flat, monotonous country of Cam-
bridgeshire is relieved by picturesque humble dwellings such
as those drawn by our artist at Hinxton (p. 62).

We have seen several examples of tiled roofs. An old
English red-tiled roof, when it has become mellowed by age
with moss and lichen growing upon it, is one ot the great
charms of an English landscape.

Nothing shows better the skill and ingenuity of the old
builders than the means they adopted to overcome peculiar

F 65

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

difficulties. The roofs ot cottages usually slope steeply in
order that the rain may flow off easily. But these Sussex
masons found that the heavy Horsham slates strained and
dragged at the pegs and laths, and fell and injured the roof.
So they decreased the slope of the roof, and the difficulty
was obviated. However, as the rain did not flow off very

COTTAGES AT GREAT TEW, OXON

well, they were obliged to use cement and stop with
mortar.

There is a great variety in old ridge-tiling, but the
humbler abodes usually have simple bent tiles or the plain
half-round as a finish to the roof.

The ends of the gables are often adorned with barge-
boards. A simple but effective example is shown in the
illustration of the cottage porch at Upton Snodsbury, in
Worcestershire, on page 62. Early examples have their edges

COTTAGE ARCHITECTURE

cut into cusps, or pierced with tracery in the form of trefoils
or quatrefoils. In Jacobean times the builders placed a finial
at the ridge and pendants at the eaves, and the perforated
designs were more fantastic. Even poor-looking houses have

^1^^

£-1?/ ^

THATCHING AT CODFORD ST. PETER, WILTSHIRE

elaborately carved or moulded bargeboards. In old houses
the bargeboards project about a foot from the surface of the
wall. In the eighteenth century, when weather-tiling was
introduced, the distances between the wall and the barge-
boards was diminished, and ultimately they were placed flush

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

with it. Elaborately carved boards were discarded, and the
ends of the gables moulded.

The most picturesque mode of roofing is thatch, and its
glories and beauties have often been sung by poets and
depicted by artists. It is charming in its youth, maturity,
and decay. Thatch is not so usual as it was formerly. Good

CALBOURNE, ISLE OF WIGHT

Straw is not so plentiful. Farmers grow less corn, and the
straw broken by thrashing machines is not so good tor
thatching as that thrashed by the flail. The skill of the old
thatcher produced most artistic effects. The author of an
article on the "Old Thatched Rectory" bids us to

" notice the exquisitely neat finish of the roof-ridge, the
most critical point of the whole : the geometrical patterns
formed by the spars just below, which help, by their grip, to
hold it in its place for years : the faultless symmetry of the

COTTAGE ARCHITECTURE

slopes, the clean-cut edges, the gentle curves of the upper
windows which rise above the 'plate' ; and, better still, the
embrace which, as with the encircling arms of a mother,
it gives to the deep-planted, half-hidden dormer window
in the middle /f the roof, nestling lovingly within it, and by-
its very look inviting to
peacefulness and repose.
Noie, too, the change of
colouring in the work as
time goes on ; the rich sun-
set tint, beautiful as the locks
of Ceres, when the work is
just completed ; the warm
brown ot the succeeding
years ; the emerald green,
the symptom of advancing
age, when lichens and moss
have begun to gather thick
upon it ; and ' last scene of
all, which ends' its quiet, un-
eventful history, when winds
and rain have done their
work upon it, the rounded
meandering ridges, and the
sinuous deep -cut furrows,
which, like the waters of a
troubled sea, ruffle its once
smooth surface."^

The varied beauties of
thatch are well seen in the
illustrations. Noticethe lovely
cottage at Beaulieu (p. 64),

with its thatch encirclins: the little dormer windows and the
beautiful curves of the roof. The humbler dwelling at
Marston Sicca (p. 65) has a finely wrought thatch ingeniously
extended to embrace the shed. Great Tew has the credit of

' "The Old Thatched Rectory and its Birds" {N'uirtrrnth Cenfury), by
R. Bosworth Smith.

CAVENDISH, SUFFOLK

COTTAGE ARCHITECTURE

being one of the prettiest villages in England. It lies amongst
the steep, well-timbered hills in Mid-Oxfordshire. All the
cottages are built of a local stone, which has turned to a grey
yellow or rich ochre, and are either steeply thatched or roofed
with thinnish slabs of the same yellowish grey stone, about the
size of slates, and called by the vulgar "slats." The illustra-
tion (p. 66) shows some of these delightful dwellings. The
diamond-paned windows have stone muUions with drip-stones
over them, and over the doors are stone cornices with span-
drels. No one cottage repeats another. There is no slate or
red brick in the village. Honeysuckle, roses, clematis, ivy,
japonica beautify the cottage walls, in front of which are
bright, well-kept gardens behind trim hedges. The old
stocks still stand on the village green, as they stood when
Lord Falkland rode from his home here to fight for King
Charles and die at the battle of Newbury.

Other examples of thatched cottages are shown : a grace-
fully shaped thatch at Codford St. Peter (p. 67), a street of
Isle of Wight cottages at Calbourne (p. 68), and the charming
little dormer window of a cottage at Cavendish, Suffolk (p. 69).

Burwash is a pretty Sussex village in a region famous
for good cottages. It has memories of smugglers, of a
genial rector who wrote a book about Sussex folk and
Sussex, and of a learned poetical curate who became Pro-
fessor ot Poetry at Oxford. Our artist has given us a sketch
of the village street with its broach-spired church. The
house on the right is superior to the others, and possesses
the appearance of a Queen Anne building. It was built
in 1699, '^''^'^ has inside some fine plaster-work, with grace-
fully modelled birds, over the staircase.

DETAILS, DECORATION, AND INTERIORS
OF COTTAGES

THERE is much else that may he noted in the
details of cottage architecture which deserves to
be recorded. Our village builders were not con-
tent to leave the humble dwellings bare and un-
ci

adorned, but loved to add to them ornamental details such
as their good taste suggested. This is especially noticeable
in the decoration of the plaster-covered panels framed by
the timbers that formed the framework of their houses.
The men of the seventeenth century set themselves to
embellish that which we moderns are content to leave per-
fectly blank. Pargetted work and plaster work are especial
features of timber-framed houses. The usual method was
to press the plaster into a concave mould and then transfer
it to the plastered surface when still moist. Our artist has
made some sketches of these external plaster details taken
from houses in Hertfordshire, Essex, and Suffolk. It is well
that all such pargetting work should be carefully drawn and
recorded, as much of it is fast perishing or being destroyed.
Some simple examples found in Berkshire are shown (p. 75).
These consist simply of straight or circular lines, and no
pressing frame or special apparatus was required for their pro-
duction ; but the effect is produced by the contrast of rough-
cast and smooth plaster, and shows the pride which the
builders took in their work and their endeavour with
ordinary tools to produce somic attempt at ornamentation.
They loved also to stamp their work with their initials,

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EXTERNAL PLASTER DETAILS (pARGETTING) FROM HERTS,
ESSEX, AND SUFFOLK

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

and very many houses have carved in stone the date of their
construction and the initial letters of the names of the

builders. Heraldic arms also are
sculptured on the fine stone buildings
in the regions of good quarries, and we
give an illustration of a good coat-of-
arms found on a house at Winch-
combe, whence the famous "Jack
of Newbury," the rich clothier of
Henry VII I's time, derived his
family name. Over the door of a
substantial house at Stanton-in-the-
Peak, Derbyshire, we see the initials " E. G. L." with the date
1664 (p. 76). It is a fine door worthy of a mansion, with its
flight of steps and handsome tympanum
and hood-moulding. There is much
dignity and solid work about many of
these cottage doors. They retain the
Gothic spirit, with their Tudor arches
and Perpendicular hood-moulding. Possi-
bly the doorways at Croscombe (p. 77) and
Marston Magna, Somerset (p. 79, formerly a window) are
early sixteenth-century work, and belong to buildings which

have seen better days.

Cottage doors are always open
and invite us to enter. We may
still see ingle-nooks and open fire-
places. Our artist has discovered some
charming examples of these attrac-
tive features. That one at Garnacott, near Bideford (p. 78), is
very characteristic with its cauldron and kettle and dogs.
A beam runs along the top of the fire-place, stretching across
the opening from which a short curtain hangs. This repre-
sents the typical kind of cottage fire-place which is already
rare and is rapidly becoming extinct, for though picturesque,

DETAILS, DECORATION AND INTERIORS

it does not commend itself to the modern housewife, who
greatly prefers the iron "kitchener" or range for her cook-
ing. This example shows the old cloth above the mantel-
piece, and the seat and rush-bottomed chair in harmony with
the rest of the fittings. Above this is a shelf blackened by
the smoke of ages whereon some of the cottager's treasures
repose, kettles and cooking-pots, and possibly modern nick-
nacks, cups bearing inscriptions " A Present from Brighton "

;-|^ "^^B '\^ m l^ lM i^' ' '

3-. V^

' ^

-4.

ifli

PARGETTING IN BERKSHIRE

or "For a Good Girl," in conjunction with impossible milk-
maids, shepherds, and shepherdesses, and dogs and cats with
great staring eyes, and miniature dolls' houses, and mugs
and pigs of divers patterns. The window at the back of
the fire-place is curious, and is occasionally found opening
out of the ingle-nook. Frequently these old fire-places
communicate with a small oven built out from the house.
This is often semicircular and ingeniously roofed with tiles
or slates. It was a custom almost universal in former times

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

for the cottagers to bake their own bread, and it is still
practised in remote districts, such as Shropshire and in the
Welsh hills, where even modern cottages are sometimes
built with ovens.

"A*"^ '

jT ^'

STANTON-IN-THE-PEAK, DERBYSHIRE

Miss Jekyll has made a wonderful collection of objects
discovered in country cottages in West Surrey, and has
presented them to the museum of the local archaeological
society at Guildford. Her book Old fVest Surrey is a faithful
and valuable guide to the contents of cottages. She has

-6

DETAILS, DECORATION AND INTERIORS

found cooking implements •". --

pierced with crosses, which js

probably came from some /
monastic house, and count-
less objects far too numerous
to mention. Our illustration
of the Marston Magna ingle-
nook (p. 80) shows a good
specimen of the chimney-
crane and hanger, which ex-
hibit the splendid work of
the local blacksmith. The
crane turns on its pivot. The
hanger moves along the top
bar of the crane, and can be
raised or lowered, and on

1 , 1 1 .1 COTTAGE DOORWAY, CROSCOMBE,

its hook rests the kettle or '

SOMERSET

cooking-pot. One of our

illustrations reveals the primitive method
of illumination, the rushlight, which was
used lonor after the dawn of the nineteenth
century. Rushes were peeled and then
drawn through melted grease, and then left
to dry. The rushlight holders have a
movable jaw at the top and a fixed one.
The movable jaw has a knob at the end.
In one of the illustrations given this
knob has been converted into a candle-
' socket. Many are the other curious im-
plements which old cottages disclose.

We glance at a delightful window in
the quaint old town of Burford (p. 81). I
dare not call it a village, though it is but
a small place ; but it has had a great his-
RusHLiGHT HOLDERS tory, and is one of the most picturesque

COTTAGE FIRE-PLACE, GARNACOTT (nEAR BIDEFORD), NORTH DEVON

DETAILS, DECORATION AND INTERIORS

and interesting little towns in England. That "windowed
niche" looks very attractive with its muUions set in a
curved bay. Not less lovely is the
cottage window at Spratton, North- J^Jf^-
ants (p. 82), viewed from outside, "^j
adorned with comely creepers, stone ;
mullions, and diamond panes ; and
there is an interesting cottage window
at Sutton Courtney, Berkshire (p. 82),
which is of a classical Renaissance
character, and makes us wonder how
it managed to get into this rather re-
mote Berkshire village.

A great deal may be said about
farm-house and cottage chimneys,
their construction and development.
An immense amount of ingenuity
was exercised in their construction.
In the older houses there is often a ^

COTTAGE DOORWAY, MARS-

great central chimney, and all the ^on magna, somerset

flues are placed together, crowned

by the shafts. A good example is shown on page 69. The
builders did not aim at utility alone,
but strove to add beauty and diversity
by using moulded bricks, numerous
angles and projecting courses. The
thinness ot the old bricks and the
thickness of the mortar assisted them in
producing a picturesque effect.

The most common form of cottage
chimney is that which is placed at the
end or side of a house, and is usually a
large structure. If the broad part
reaches above the height of the ceiling

of the ground floor you will probably find a bacon-loft,

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

wherein some sides of bacon are being smoked. The
chimney, beginning with its straight upright base, has
a steep slope, sometimes covered with tiles, then another

/. -. - -

MARSTON MAGNA, SOMERSET

straight piece, then an arrangement of brick steps, repeated
again until the chimney is ready for its shaft with its pro-
jecting courses, and finished with a comely
pot, or a "bonnet" fashioned ot red tiles.
Great pains was often taken to adorn the
|\ head, and the effect is wonderfully fine, the
p-^ means employed natural and simple and
unaffected.

A coTSWOLD The illustration (p. 79) shows the stack

GABLE FiNiAL of a Cotswold cottage retaining traces of

DETAILS, DECORATION AND INTERIORS

Gothic influence. It has an octagonal shaft pierced with
quatrefoil openings and the remains ot a pyramidal roof.

— ^^"^^ .4

A COTTAGE WINDOW, BURFORD, OXON

The chimney cornices in the Cotswolds often have elabo-
rately decorated architrave and frieze, enriched with sunk
patterns, raised diamonds or
The

^, other devices.

hole

district abounds with grand
stone-built houses, beautiful
types of building, simple yet
strong, which owe their origin to the wealth

G 8l

..- ■■

M''

i WE

\ I7I0 ;

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

and skill of the great
clothiers and woolmen
who flourished here in
olden days. We admire
§ '_ their fine stone porches
~" and tour-centred arched

^11*%.

A COTTAGE WINDOW, SPRATTON,
NORTHANTS

doorways, the curious and
splendidly wrought iron-
work of hinge and latch,
handle and casement-
fasteners, the mullioned
bay and oriel windows
with their lead lattice
glazinof and diamond
panes, the decorated
gables, and many other

attractive features. A whole chapter would not record all their

beauties, and the reader

who seeks additional

information is referred

to Mr. Dawber and

Mr. Davie's book on

the OM Cof/cjges, Farm-
houses^ and other Stone

Buildings in the Cotswohi

District^ wherein he will

find all that he needs.
We have ling-ered

perhaps too long amid

the cottages, and must

now pass on to observe

other interesting fea-
tures of our village.

A COTTAGE WINDOW, SUTTON COURTNEY,
BERKSHIRE

VI
VILLAGE GARDENS

WE have some noble gardens in our village.
The squire's garden was once visited by that
great garden-lover, John Evelyn, who states
that " the .o-ardens and waters are as elegant
as 'tis possible to make a flat by art and Industrie and no
meane expense, my Lady being extraordinarily skill'd in the
flowery part, and my Lord in diligence of planting." He
praises the delicious and rare Iruit, the flne timber, and goes
on to tell of the o-arden " so beset with all manner of sweete
shrubbs that it perfumes the aire. The distribution also
of the quarters, walks, and parterres is excellent ; the nur-
series, kitchen-garden full of the most desirable plants ; two
very noble orangeries, well furnished, but above all the
canall and fish ponds ... in a word all that can make a
country seate delightful." Happily this beautiful garden has
escaped the devastation of such wretches as Capability Brown,
Kent, and such desecrators, who in cultivating the taste
of landscape gardening destroyed more than half the old
gardens in England, and scarcely left us a decent hedge
or sheltered walk to protect us from the east winds.

The old rectory garden is worth visiting, with its fine
terrace, and paths sheltered with high and thick box hedges,
herbaceous borders, and old trees. Utility mingles itself
with beauty, and the kitchen-garden blends itself with the
flower-beds wherein many old English plants find a home.
The grouping for colour cflx:ct is especially noticeable in this

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

moderately sized garden, which tells that the rector or his
lady are not unskilled in floriculture.

But the cottage gardens constitute one of the chief charms
of the village. They show what wonderful results can be
obtained on a small plot of ground with simple flowers. It
was Charles Dickens who said that " in the culture of flowers
there cannot, by their nature, be anything solitary or ex-
clusive. The wind that blows over the cottage porch sweeps
over the garden of the nobleman, and as the rain descends on
the just and on the unjust, so it communicates to all gardens,
both rich and poor, an interchange of pleasure and enjoy-
ment."

Poets in many ages have sung sweetly of the beauty of
our cottage gardens, and none more sweetly than the late
Poet Laureate, who tells their praises thus : —

One look'd all rose tree, and another wore

A close-set robe of jasmine sown with stars ;

This had a rosy sea of gilliflowers

About it ; this a milky way on earth,

Like visions in the Northern Dreamer's heavens,

A lily avenue climbing to the doors ;

One, almost to the martin-haunted eaves,

A summer burial deep in hollyhocks ;

Each its own charm.

When we return from visiting other lands, we notice with
gratified eyes these wayside homely gardens, which are
peculiarly English. Englishmen have always loved their
gardens, and all classes share in this affection. It is not
so with other European nations. You do not find abroad
those flowers in cottage windows cherished so carefully
through the winter months ; you do not see the thrifty
Frenchman or German stealing from his potato ground or
onion bed a nice broad space for the cultivation of flowers.
Whereas in England you will scarcely find a cottage garden
that is not gay and bright with beautiful flowers, or the

VI --" '

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

poorest labourer, however large his tamily may be, willing
to sacrifice the plants in which he takes so great a pride.

At all seasons of the year these cottage gardens look
beautiful. Snowdrops and crocuses seem to rear their heads
earlier in the springtime in their village plots than in the
gardens of the great. Yellow and purple crocuses are there,

and then a little later dog-
tooth, white and purple
violets, and yellow daffo-
dils. My villagers have
given me bunches ot vio-
lets long before they grew
in the rectory garden, save
those Neapolitan ones that
flourish in a frame. Prim-
roses transplanted from the
neiorhbourino[ woods are not
despised. A few stray
tulips begin to show them-
selves, immensely prized
by the cottager, and soon
the wallflowers are in bloom
filling the air with beauti-
ful scent, and forget-me-
nots reflect the blueness
of the sky. Villagers love
the simple polyanthus, and
soon on the wall of the cottage is seen the red japonica
in full flower. Then the roses come into bloom, and many
a cottage can boast of its fine Gloire de Dijon or Marechal
Niel or strong-growing crimson rambler. Clematis plants
of various hues are seen on many a cottage wall, and
ivy " that creepeth o'er ruins old" loves to cling to rustic
dwelling-places, and sometimes clothes walls and thatch and
chimney with its dark green leaves. The honeysuckle is a

A GARDEN ENTRANCE, CHALE-
GREEN, ISLE OF WIGHT

VILLAGE GARDENS

favourite plant for climbing purposes. It covers the porch
and sheds its rich perfume around, nor in the warmer parts
of England is the vine unknown.

The southern counties of England afford the most
luxuriant examples of cottage gardens which form a con-

^N^"V^V-.-~~-~-.y- ^-.•v^,^^^ ,

COTTAGE GARDEN ENTRANCE, STRETTON SUGWAS, HEREFORDSHIRE

spicuous charm of our villages. Our artist discovered a
delightful old garden at Trent, Dorset (p. 85), wherein count-
less flowers have found a home and give a glowing patch of
colour to the landscape. The Isle of Wight with its warm
climate abounds in beautiful gardens. The illustration of a
garden entrance at Chalegreen looks inviting, and we should
like to mount the steps shaded by luxuriant yew and see all
that lies beyond. We know of another beautiful little garden

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

at Shalfleet in the island, where there is a charming well-
trimmed edging of box which surrounds a little path and
central bed, wherein stocks and a carefully tended standard rose
raises its beautiful head. Cottage garden paths are usually

SOUTH WARNBOROUGH, HANTS

made of gravel. In Sussex they are paved with large flat
Horsham slabs of stone. Box-edgings are not uncommon,
than which nothing can be more handsome or suitable.

Nor are the flowers confined to the garden. You will
scarcely find a cottage that has not some plants in the window
which are tended with the greatest care, and are watered
and washed so religiously that they flourish famously.

^^)t^^¥^?;«f^

■"•7

A COTTAGE ENTRANCE, SULGRAVE, NORTHANTS

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

The favourite flowers for window gardens are geraniums,
hydrangeas, fuchsias, an occasional cactus or begonia, musk
and balsam, and many others which obscure the light of day
and make the cottage dark, but the peasant cares not for that
it he can see his flowers.

Old-fashioned flowers are the chief charm ot the cottage
garden, and are prized by the true garden-lover far higher
than bedding-out plants or the ordinary annuals. Nowhere
do they flourish better than in the peasant's rustic pleasure-
ground. As the summer advances we see the lilacs and
laburnums, sweet-williams and tall white Madonna lilies,
gillyflowers and love-lies-bleeding, the larkspur and the
lupin, pinks and carnations, the ever-constant wallflowers,
and the Canterbury bells. The everlasting-pea is ever wel-
come in its cottage home, and dahlias are greatly prized, not
the single ones so much as the old-fashioned, tight-growing
formal kinds.

Hardy annuals have in some rural gardens ousted the
old-tashioned flowers. Nasturtiums and china-asters and
stocks flourish where once the sweet-william and other
herbaceous plants were regarded with delight. We hope
that the rustics will return to their first love, and cherish
again the old flowers which are the true glory of a rustic
garden.

Cottagers, though expert gardeners, are very often puzzled
by the foreign names assigned to flowers, especially to roses,
which they dearly love, and which are the chief glory of our
gardens whether they be large or small. The roses them-
selves would scarcely know their names when pronounced
by our villagers, so strangely transformed and Anglicised are
they. Thus the villagers twist the Gloire de Dijon into
" Glory to thee John," and the rose named after the great
rose-grower. Dean Reynolds Hole, is called Reynard's Hole.
General Jacqueminot becomes in popular nomenclature
General Jack-me-not, and the bright crimson Geant des

VILLAGE GARDENS

Batailles becomes Gent of Battles. But the roses bloom
no less beautifully on account ot this murdering of their
names.

The old favourite roses which you find in these gardens

'r_'>i-^^^ —

.y.-fvvVMWSX**!*^' .■.«t„^(l,'

^.^.^^ ''i'^H.-va/\« 'X-i / .

APPLETON, BUCKS

are the Sweetbriar, the Cabbage, the York and Lancaster,
the Moss, the old White Damask, the double white, brother
of the pretty pink Maiden's Blush. But some cottagers are
more ambitious, and obtain cuttings of many varieties of
modern rose trees, and hybrids and Teas now flourish in
the peasant's border as in the lord's rosarium. The love

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

of this flower is indeed the "one touch of nature which
makes the whole world kin."

Examples of the formal garden may be seen as we walk
along our English roads. Box trees cut into fantastic shapes
and clipped yews are occasionally met with. The trees are
made to assume the appearance of peacocks with long flow-

miiBSIIf!itm»!{aw<

CUT HEDGE AND THATCHED VERANDAH, ACTON TRUSSEL,
STAFFORDSHIRE

ing tails or other strange shapes, and awkv/ard figures of
men and animals. Happily the fashion of clipping and hack-
ing trees is not universally followed, and except in some
districts is rare in cottage gardens. In the country of West
Herefordshire this practice is common, and there is a well-
known example in the garden of the cottage just outside
Haddon Hall. In the view of a cottage garden entrance

VILLAGE GARDENS

at Stretton Sugwas, Herefordshire, on page 87, we see a
very fierce peacock with flowing tail endeavouring to reach
across the path to peck some food from a cylindrical-looking
vessel on the opposite side. The trees are admirably clipped.
And at South Warnborough, Hants, our artist has discovered
some good examples of fantastic clipping (p. 88). The
cottage entrance in the village of Sulgrave, Northants (p. 89),
guarded by two stately cypresses, is very imposing, and the
raising of the garden above the road with the flight of steps
worthy of a rustic Haddon Hall romance adds to the effect.
At Appleton the cottage entrance is overshadowed by two
yew trees growing into one large mass (p. 91), a curious
example of differing treatment when we compare it with the
Northamptonshire example. A third example, again quite
distinct in its arrangement and yet equally attractive, is the
pretty cut hedge and thatched verandah at Acton Trussel,
Staffordshire, in which the space under the sweeping cut
hedge is further shaded by large round shrubs ; a spot very
shady in summer and sheltered in winter.

Here is a description of a Berkshire village garden told
by one who knows her county well and the quaint ways of
her rural neighbours. She tells ot the glories of

" the Red House which gained its title in its youth. A
century of wear and weather has toned the bricks until they
look almost colourless by contrast with the rich, crimson
flowers of the pyrus japonica that is trained beneath the
lower windows. The upper portion of the walls is covered
by a vine, among the yellowing leaves of which hang, during
autumn, tight bunches of small purple grapes that supply
the wherewithal for grape wine. At one side of the narrow,
railed-in space separating the front door from the street,
stands an old pear tree, loaded every season with fruit which,
owing to its ' iron ' quality, escapes the hands of boy-
marauders. The little spot reflects all the tints of the rain-
bow save in the depth of winter. The first buds to pierce
the brown earth and brighten its dull surface are such

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

tender blossoms as the snowdrop, hepatica, and winter
aconite. To them succeed crocuses, hyacinths, tulips, the
scale of colour mounting ever higher as the season advances,
until it culminates in a blaze ot scarlet, blue, and yellow,
that to be fully appreciated should flame against grey, vener-
able walls or light up the dark sweep ot some cedar-studded
lawn. The square garden behind the house slopes to the
brook near the bridge, and is shut in on two sides by high
mud walls half hidden beneath manes of ivy. Along the
stream — bordered just there by willows — is a broad band
of turf flanked by nut bushes that shelter each a rustic seat,
and sparkling in spring with clumps of daffodils tossing their
heads in sprightly dance. When the sun is shining through
their golden petals and burnishing the surface ot the water,
when it is brightening the pink willow-buds and revealing
unsuspected tints in the mossy trunks of the apple-trees
beyond the brook, that little strip of grass is a joy, the
remembrance of which abides throughout the year, until the
changing months make it once again something more than
a memory.'

Cottage gardens, of course, combine utility with beauty,
and are sorely missed, when our rustics, attracted by the
glamour ot the town, desert the country in order to seek
their fortunes in the busy city. The loss of their garden
is one of the first steps in their rude awakening. Much
else might be written about the attractions ot our gardens,
whether large or small ; but enough, perhaps, has been told
of their beauties and perfections which form so characteristic
and charmino; a feature of Encjlish village life.

1 This garden is in the village of West Hendred, Berks, and is described
by Miss Hayden in her book Travels Round Our Village.

VII

INNS, SHOPS, AND MILLS

N important house in every village is the inn — a
hostel such as Izaak Walton loved to sketch,
" an honest alehouse where we shall find a cleanly
room, lavender in the windows, and twenty
ballads stuck about the wall, where the linen looks white and
smells of lavender, and a hostess cleanly, handsome, and
civil." Perhaps our village, if it lies along one ot the old
coaching roads, has more than one such hostelry, and the
"Blue Lion" frowns on the "Brown Bull," anci the "Raven"
croaks at the " Bell." Once they were large and flourishing
inns, but their glory has departed. When coaches rattled
through the village these inns had a thriving trade, and
imagination pictures to our minds the glowing life of the
coaching age. We see again the merry coach come in, the
" Mercury," or the " Regulator," or the " Lightning," ac-
cording to the road we choose or the ao;c in which we are
pleased to travel. We see the strangely mixed company that
hangs about the door, the poor travellers trying to thaw
themselves before the blazingf hearth, the o;ood cheer that
awaits them — huo^e rounds of beet, monstrous veal pies,
mighty hams, and draughts of good old English ale brewed
in yon ruined brcwhouse, and burgundy and old port. The
present landlord can produce, perhaps, some bread and
cheese and a glass of ale — that is all ; and one solitary nag
stands in the stables where then there was stablinor for fittv

INNS, SHOPS, AND MILLS

horses, and the grass grows green in the stable-yard, and
silence reigns in the deserted chambers.

But even in their decay how picturesque these old inns
are. The red-tiled roof, the deep bay window, the swinging
signboard, the huge horse-trough, the pump and outdoor
settle, torm a picture which artists love to sketch ; while
within the old-fashioned fire-place, with seats on each side in
the ingle-nook, and the blazing log fire in the dog-grate, are
cheering sights to the weary traveller. In his travels in
search ot the picturesque our artist has found many such
inns, and some of them he has sketched. There is the fine
old inn at Deane, Northants, with the quaint sign the " Sea
Horse." What the sea-horse is doing in the centre of
England is not very evident, unless heraldry can help us to
a conclusion. The old house at Croscombe, Somerset (p. 98),
was formerly the First and Last Inn, a coaching hostel, now
no longer needed. Its every detail is charming, and before
it races the water over a fine stone mill-dam. Two charming
interiors our artist has given us, the Union Inn at Flyford
Flavel (p. 99), with its open fire-place into which a mociern
grate has been inserted, the old-fashioned settle and corre-
sponding details ; and the kitchen of an old Bedfordshire
inn (p. loi), which has the unusual well in one corner, that
has not yet given way to a pump.

The signboard that swings outside the inn has many
stories to tell as it creaks in the wind. Some of these signs
are remarkable for the exquisite ironwork that supports them
and tells of the skill of the villao^e blacksmiths of former
days. The man who forged such beautiful specimens ot
ironwork had the heart and mind and hand of the true
artist, though he were but a simple village blacksmith. The
signs, too, at least the old ones, are well painted, and some
are constructed of carved wood. A finely carved bunch
ot grapes, of eighteenth-century work, hangs before the
Red Lion Inn at Milford, Surrey, and a study ot signs
H 97

AN OLD HOUSE (FORMERLY THE FIRST AND LAST INn)
AND MILL DAM, CROSCOMBE, SOMERSET

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

shows that there must have been a large number of skilful
carvers of this bold kind of work about a hundred and fifty
years ago. They had plenty of opportunity for exercising
their art, as signs were not confined to inns. Unless our
artist has improved the swan and the bull (see page 103), the
old art of sign-painting has not quite disappeared. There is
one inn in England which can boast ot a signboard painted by
two Royal Academicians, the " St. George and the Dragon "
at Wargrave. Mr. Leslie, r.a., and Mr. Broughton, r.a.,
used to stay at the inn sometimes when they were on sketch-
ing bent, and requited the landlord for his attention by
repainting his sign. St. George appears on one side regaling
himself with a tankard on his way to fight the dragon, and
on the other the hero-saint is refreshing himself after the
combat. One of the most extraordinary signs in England is
shown on page 103. The inn is the "Fox and Hounds"
at Barley, Hertfordshire, and the sign is a pack of hounds
hunting a fox, followed by two huntsmen. The whole
history of sign-boards invites digression, but space forbids
a repetition of what I have tried to tell before in another
book that deals with the antiquities of English villages, and
not so much with their outward charm. ^

Near the inn stands the shop of the blacksmith, who is
a very important person in the village community. We
have seen some specimens of his forefathers' work, and
though I question whether he could fashion such delicate and
ornate supports for signboards, such wonderful ornamental
ironwork, he is a very clever " all-round " man. He not
only can shoe horses, but repair all kinds of agricultural
implements, mend clocks, cut hair, and even in olden days
he used to draw teeth. Our village blacksmith is a most
accomplished person, and can turn his hand to anything.
The village blacksmith has been immortalised in verse, and

1 English Villages, by P. H. Ditchlit-ld (Mt-tliucn .\: Co.).
100

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

a picture of his smithy drawn by a skilful hand. Longfellow's
poem is so familiar that it need not be quoted.

Still the light of the forge gleams out in the dusk of a winter's
day, and the children try to catch " the burning sparks that
fly like chaff from a thrashing-floor." "Henry Moat, r.s.s.,"
who works at Sturry, Kent (see page 104), is a very up-to-
date smith, and his shop is spruce and neat, unlike most
village smithies, where all sorts of old iron is scattered about,
and where sometimes you may find some curios and treasures.

The village shop is a wondrous place wherein you can buy
anything from a bootlace to a side of bacon. Sweets for
children, needles and thread for the busy housewife, butter
and cheese, tea and ginger-beer — endless is the assortment
of goods which the village shop provides. Whiteley's in
London can scarcely rival its marvellous productiveness.
Very old and quaint is the building. There is one at Ling-
field, Surrey, which has performed its useful mission since
the fifteenth century. It has a central recess with braces
to support the roof-plate. Formerly there was an open
shop-front with wooden shutters hinged at the bottom ot
the sills, on the tops of the stall-boards, and which could
be turned down in the daytime at right angles with the
front, and used for displaying wares. In some cases there
were two shutters, the lower one hinged in the bottom sill,
as I have described, while the upper one was hinged to the
top, and when raised formed a pent-house roof. Shake-
speare alludes to this arrangement when he says, in Love's
Labour s Lost^ " With your hat pent-house like o'er the shop
of your eyes." The door was divided into two halves like
a modern stable door.

Village industries are fast dying out, if they are not all
dead and buried. In the olden days when the cloth trade
was flourishing in Berkshire each village was alive with busy
industrial enterprise. Each cottage had its spinning-wheel,
and every week the clothiers of Reading and Newbury used

BARLEY, HERTS

KNOWLE,
WARWICKSHIRE

CLARE, SUFFOLK

OLD INN SIGNS

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

to send out their men amoncr the villages, their packhorses
laden with wool, and every week they returned, their pack
laden with yarn ready for the loom. We give a view of the
village of East Hendred, which was a prosperous clothing
centre. There is a picturesque field near the church where
terraces still remain, which were used for drying cloth, and

THE BLACKSMITHS SHOP, STURRV, KENT

a piece of land called " Fulling Mill Meer," where — so
Mr. Woodward, who was rector in 1759, stated — "ancient
people remembered the ruins of a mill in the stream hard
by." This fulling mill was held of the king by John Eston,
whose descendant is still lord of the manor. In the church
are brasses to the memory of Henry and Roger Eldysley,
" mercatores istius ville," and of William Whitway, "pan-
narius et lanarius." The village had also a flourishing fair,
which was held on the downs, and reached from Scutchamore

104

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

Knob to Hendred, along a straight green road once known
as the Golden Mile. It was abolished by James I in 1620.
All this testifies to the importance of this little village in
former days, and of the flourishing manufacture of cloth
carried on there.

But the introduction of machinery, the invention of spin-
ning jennies, carding machines, and like inventions, and the
activity of the northern clothiers, turned the tide of fortune
elsewhere and killed the village industry. Other trades have
suffered in the same way. Gloves were made in many a
village in Worcestershire ; lace in Buckinghamshire, where the
industry has been revived, and in Devonshire, and old dames
might have been seen at the cottage doors with their bobbins
and pillows and " earned good money " by their deft fingers.

The mill still stands, but it is a ruin, picturesque in its
decay. The overshot-wheel is still and lifeless, with rotting
timbers unhidden by pent-house or roof.

"No wains piled high with corn roll heavily down the
lane to disgorge swollen sacks to fill its gaping vats. The
corn laws, the cheap loaf, ' which came as a gift to us poor
folks,' killed the mill in the valley. Its business declined ;
chains became rusty ; doors and windows fell out and the
roof fell in ; the stream was diverted by a side cut, and the
great oaken wheel hung rotting on its pin."^

It is one of the oldest houses in the village, and once one
of the most important. It was the lord's mill, the mill
owned by the lord of the manor, and to it all the tenants
were obliged to bring their corn to be ground, unless they
would undergo divers pains and penalties. But it is a ruin
now ; its glories are departed ; its millstones adorn the
squire's garden ; but it still adds beauty to the scene. The
stream that once turned the great floats rushes calmly by,
but its banks are the home of many ferns and flowers, and
the weir is still a picturesque miniature cascade. Some

^ Travels Round Our Village, by Miss Hayden.

1^ '7'$'

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

water-mills still survive — " cool and splashing homes — homes
ot peaceful bustle," as Mr. Lucas happily describes them — and
the miller with his white hat is not quite dead, a pleasing
personage in the village community. If old songs are to
be trusted, he was always "jolly," " hearty," " hale and bold,"
especially if he lived by the river Dee, where

He worked and sang from morn till night,
No lark more blithe than he ;

and mightily independent, caring for nobody as nobody
cared for him. We cannot afford to lose such a sturdv,
jovial character.

The village once had other mills that derived their power
not from the stream but from the wind, and in East Anglia
these windmills still remain, relics of the age ere steam had
begun to exercise its relentless sway. Our artist has given
a sketch of that at Ballingdon, Essex, a typical windmill
with its sloping boarded sides, its imposing cap, and giant
sails that woo the wind. Sussex also has its windmills
standing high and white, things of life and beauty, suitable
for the grinding of the golden harvest of the fields, not
ugly, noisy infernos like the steam-mills. Artists have loved
to depict our windmills, especially Constable, than which
there are no more charming features in an English landscape.
Many have disappeared in recent years, but the name
"Windmill Hill" often records their site and preserves
their memories.

Though many of our village industries are dead, we have
others still very much alive. Besides the usual agricultural
occupations, ploughing and sowing, digging, reaping, and
thatching, we have our skilful woodmen who can fell and
carry the largest trees with consummate ease, and it is a
wonderful sight to see them roll these massive giants of the
forest up the slides to the great wood-wagons, and the
horses are as skilful as the men. Broom-squires still make

io8

..1 \^V

.^^¥

AN ESSEX MILL, BALLINGDOX

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

birch and heath brooms, and are a rough race. Two of
them met at Newbury market and exchanged confidences :

"Jack, I can't tell 'ow thee sells the brooms so cheap like.
I steals the ling, I steals the butts, I steals the withies ; but I
can't sell 'em as cheap as thee."

" Why," said his companion unblushingly, " I steals 'em
ready made."

Hop-growing, cider-making, chair-making, straw-plaiting,
and many other industries still live on, and it would be well
it others could be introduced, in order to add to the pros-
perity and relieve the monotony of ordinary rural existence.

iio

VllI
ALMSHOUSES AND GRAMMAR SCHOOLS

IN many villages there are old almshouses founded by
pious benefactors for " poor brethren and sisters,"
God's hostels, where men and women on whom the
snows of life have begun to fall thickly, may rest and
recruit and "take their ease" before they start on their last
long journey. Here the tired and the moneyless find harbour-
age. Some of these houses are quite humble places erected by
some good squire for the aged poor of the village ; others
are large and beautiful buildings erected by some great noble
or rich merchant, or London City Company, for a wider
scheme of charity. Scattered over the country we find these
delightful resting-places. We enter the quiet courtyard
paved with cobble stones, or, as it is at Wantage, with
knuckle-bones, relics of the town's former industry of tan-
ning, and see the panelled dining-hall with its dark oaken
table, the chapel where daily prayer is said, the comfortable
little rooms of the brothers and sisters, the time-worn pump
in the courtyard, the flowers in the garden beds and in the
windows, and we are glad these old folks should have so
sweet a home as they pause before their last long journey.
Our illustration shows the pretty village of Ewelme, with a
row of cottages half a mile long, which have before their
doors a sparkling stream dammed here and there into water-
cress beds. At the top of the street on a steep knoll stand
church and school and almshouses of the mellowest fifteenth-
century bricks, as beautiful and structurally sound as the

III

) 2

ALMSHOUSES AND GRAMMAR SCHOOLS

pious founders left them/ These founders were the un-
happy William de la Pole, first Duke of Suffolk, and his
good wife the Duchess Alice. The Duke inherited Ewelme
through Alice Chaucer, a kinswoman of the poet, and " for
love of her and the commoditie of her landes fell much to

THE ALMSHOUSES, AUDLEY END, ESSEX

dwell in Oxfordshire," and in 1430-40 was busy building
a manor place "of brick and Tymbre and set within a fayre
mote," a church, an almshouse, and a school. The manor
place, or " Palace," as it was called, has disappeared, but the
almshouse and school remain, witnesses of the munificence
of the founders. We need not follow the fate of the poor
1 H'lston of Oxfordshire, by J. Meade Falkner.
I 113

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

duke, favourite minister of Henry VI, who was exiled by
the Yorkist faction, and beheaded by the sailors on his
way to banishment. Twenty-five years of widowhood fell
to his bereaved duchess, who finished her husband's build-
ings, calling the almshouse " God's House," and then re-
posed beneath one of the finest monuments in England in
the church hard by.

Near where I am writing is the beautiful almshouse called
Lucas's Hospital, founded by Henry Lucas for the old men
of several parishes in the neighbourhood, and placed in the
charge of the Drapers' Company of the City of London.
It is a fine Jacobean house of red brick with tiled roof and
two wings. The Quainton almshouses are very picturesque
and quietly impressive, built in 1687 by Richard Winwood.
The building has eleven gables and four blocks of chimneys,
and each inmate has two rooms opening out of each other, a
porch with seats, and a little garden attached.

Our illustrations show the beautiful almshouses at Audley
End, Essex, an architectural gem, and the more imposing
hostel at Corsham, with its great porch and immense coat-of-
arms. It was built in 1663, and consists of six houses with
a cloister, master's house, and free school, retaining some
good woodwork.

Nor did our pious benefactors forget the youth of the
village and the needs of education. It is the fashion for
short-sighted politicians to suppose that all education began
in the magical year 1870, and to forget all that was done
before to teach the youths of our village. The teaching
given in the old dame schools at the beginning of the last
century was defective enough. We hear of one of the best
conducted by a blind man, who taught fairly well, but was
rather interrupted in his academic labours by being obliged
to turn his wife's mangle. A good dame confessed, " It is
not much they pay me, and it is not much I teach them."
The curriculum of another school was described by its mis-

11 +

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"■W-^^'

'"^ -

'">?U,-

^Jii\ '

en r

THE ALMSHOUSES, CORSHAM, WILTSHIRE

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

tress : " 1 teach them to read and to sew, and the Belief and
the Commandments, and them little things." And yet their
scholars did not turn out so badly. Most of them can read ;
writing is a little difficult, and they prefer, when required to
sign their name to a will or marriage register, to plead
incapability and to make their mark ; but the women who

#s»'a"v:.v..'

EARDISLAND, HEREFORDSHIRE

The house in the centre was formerU' the Grammar School

were taught in these schools can sew far better than girls can
now, and the men can do wonderful sums in their minds,
especially when these concern their wages. But 1 am de-
scribing the old schools that existed in some of our villages,
not simple elementary schools, but grammar schools, second-
ary schools, where the boys learned Latin. Many of them
are called Edward VI's grammar schools, but were really
established long before the Reformation. Some three hundred
schools were in existence before 1535, some of them taught

116

ALMSHOUSES AND GRAMMAR SCHOOLS

by chantry priests, or by a schoolmaster provided by a
guild, or by a master of a hospital or almshouse. Duchess
Alice at Ewelme founded a school which appears in our

/ ''14

PORCH OF THE OLD GRAMMAR SCHOOL, WEORLEY,
HEREFORDSHIRE (bUILT BV JOHN ABEl)

sketch (p. 1 1 2). Childrey is a very small Berkshire village, but
its smallness did not prevent William Fettiplace founding
a free grammar school there in 1526, in which poor children
could be taught elementary subjects and richer folk Latin.
The founder's will is too long to quote, but he lays down

i'7

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

strict rules for teaching. Moreover, the chaplain-school-
master was not allowed to " keep or breed hunting birds or
to hunt regularly." A good old-fashioned grammar school
is shown in the view of Eardisland, Herefordshire, and in the
same county there is an old grammar school at Weobley, the
porch of which is beautifully designed and proportioned. It
was built by John Abel, the master of Jacobean timber work.
This porch is enriched with some quaint carving typica
of the period. Many years have passed since the building
was used for a school, but it has undergone very little change
during the two and a half centuries of its existence. It stands
in a small town famous for its half-timbered houses (p. 3).
John Abel was the most famous architect of his time, a native
of Sarnesfield, who i)uilt market houses at Leominster (now
preserved as a private residence, see p. 157, where the vane
is illustrated), Kington, and Brecon, the grammar school
at Kington, and restored the roof of Abbey Dore church, and
did much else that is worthy of his name. His tombstone
exists in the churchyard at Sarnesfield, where he was buried
in 1674, aged 97, showing the figure of himself and his two
wives and the emblems of his profession — compasses, square,
and rule. Some of his creations have escaped the decay
of time, but been destroyed by the hand of the vandal.
May the good folk of Herefordshire prize and preserve
all the remaining work of this great artist.

118

VILLAGE CROSSES, GREENS, AND
OLD-TIME PUNISHMENTS

IN many villages still stands the village cross, a pic-
turesque object, often headless and dilapidated, but
remarkable for its interesting associations and old-
time records. Some stand in churchyards, others
adorn the village green or open space where markets were
once held ; and there are others standing lonely by the
wayside, or that marked the boundaries of ancient monastic
properties. Each tells its own story of the habits, customs,
and modes of worship of our forefathers. Time has dealt
hardly with these relics of antiquity. Many fell before the
storm of Puritanical iconoclastic zeal in 1643, when the
Parliament ordered the destruction of all crucifixes, images,
and pictures of God and the saints. The crosses in London
were levelled with the ground, and throughout the country
many a beautiful work of art which had existed hundreds of
years shared the same fate.

The earliest crosses were those erected in churchyards, of
which that at Tong, Salop, may be taken as an example. Its
steps are worn by the rains and frosts of centuries. This
cross preserves the memory of the first conversion of the
Saxon villagers to Christianity. There are many Saxon
crosses still existing, and some ot them have beautiful carving
and scrollwork, which tell of the skill of Saxon masons, who
with very simple and rude tools could produce such wonderful
specimens of art. The crosses at Whalley, Ruth well, Bewcastle,

119

TONG, SALOP

VILLAGE CROSSES AND GREENS

Eyam, llkley, Hexham, Bishop Auckland, are all curiously
carved with quaint designs, proclaiming much symbolical
teaching, and were set up before churches were built by Wil-
frid, Paulinus, and other saints who first preached the Gospel
to the Saxon people/ There are several others in Somerset :
Rowberrow, Kelston, and West Camel are Saxon ; Harptree,
Norman ; Chilton Trinity and Dunster, early thirteenth
century ; Broomfield, late thirteenth century ; Williton and

THE MARKET PLACE, SOMERTON, SOMERSET

Wiveliscombe, early fourteenth century ; Bishops-Lydiard
and Chewton Mendip, late fourteenth century ; and Wraxall,
fifteenth century.

Market crosses are another class, and are found in large
villages in which markets were held by royal grant to some
great landowner or monastery. These were called " cheep-
ing" crosses, from the Anglo-Saxon word cheapo to buy,
from which Cheapside, in London, Chippenham, and Chip-
ping Norton derive their names. The earliest form of
a market cross was a pillar placed on steps. Later on their

1 An account of these crosses is given in English Fillagcs (Methucn & Co.).

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

height was increased, and niches for sculptured figures were
added. Religion was so blended with the social and com-
mercial life of the nation that sacred subjects were deemed
not inappropriate for the place of buying and selling in a
market-place. They reminded people of the sacredness of
bargains. Subsequently they were enclosed in an octagonally
shaped penthouse, wherein the abbot's servant or the reeve

THE OLD MARKET HOUSE, PEMBRIDGE, HEREFORDSHIRE

of the manor-lord received the market dues. The market
cross at Somerton, Somerset, was built in 1670. It has
three steps and some curious gargoyles at the weather-string
angles. Numerous other examples exist in the same county.
We give an illustration of the old market house at Pem-
bridge, Herefordshire, but no cross exists there now.
Markets were held in churchyards until the end of the
thirteenth century ; hence the churchyard crosses would
often be used as market crosses.

CHILDS WICKHAM, GLOUCESTERSHIRE

VILLAGE CROSSES AND GREENS

As I have said, countless villages have their crosses, though
they had no markets. They stand on the village green or in
the centre of the village nigh the church. It was the central
station for the processions when the villagers perambulated
the village at Rogation-tide. Preaching friars harangued
the people standing on its steps. Penitents were ordered
to make their pilgrimages barefoot, scantily attired, to the
cross, which was sometimes called the Weeping Cross, and
there to kneel and confess their sins. Fairs were held around
it, which were originally of a sacred character, and were held
on the festival of the saint to whom the church was dedicated.
Many associations cluster round this old village cross. Our
illustrations show the battered cross at Shapwick, Dorset
(p. 122), and that at Childs Wickham, Gloucestershire. The
steps and base of this are ancient, but the urn-shaped top is
probably a later addition. Lymm, in Cheshire, has an
elaborate cross, and near it are the village stocks, concerning
which we shall have more to say presently (p. 126).

Wayside crosses are less numerous than other kinds of
crosses. Many have been destroyed. Some have been re-
moved from their lonely stations and others pulled down,
the stones being used for gate-posts. An old book published
in 1496 explains their object : "For thys reason ben croysses
by ye waye than whan folke passinge see ye croysses they
shoulde thynke on Hym that deyed on ye croysse above al
thynge." They are like a Calvary in a French village, and
were erected for a similar purpose. Crosses were sometimes
set to mark the spot where the bodies of illustrious persons
rested during their journey to their last resting-place. Such
were- the Eleanor crosses that were set up by Edward I
at the places where the body of his beloved queen rested on
the way to W^estminster. They formed a good boundary
mark for monastic property, as on account of their sacred
character few would dare to disturb them. Curious legends
cluster round these crosses. There is one near Little Bud-

125

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

worth, Cheshire, which is gradually sinking into the earth.
According to the prophet Nixon, when it quite disappears the
end of the world will come. It is getting near the ground ;
we do not wish to cause our readers unnecessary alarm.
Hard by the cross is the village green, the scene of the

~ ^>,\v

DINTON GREEN, BUCKS

old village games and revels, where the May-pole was raised
and the rustics danced around. Here the old games and
bouts of quarter-staff and back-sword play took place ; here
the English bowmen learned their skill, and the Whitsun
rejoicings were celebrated —

A day of jubilee,

An ancient holiday,
When lo ! the rural revels are begun,
And gaily echoing to the laughing sky

O'er the smooth-shaven green.

Resounds the voice of mirth.

128

VILLAGE CROSSES AND GREENS

Our artist has given sketches of the characteristic greens at
Sevenhampton, Gloucestershire, and the Buckinghamshire
greens at Penn and Dinton. We should like to linger in
these villages and inspect the interesting church at Dinton

THE POND, Tyler's green, penn, bucks

and the old manor-house with its pictures and curios and its
associations with Simon Mayne the regicide, and to see the
house of the Penn family, but want of space will not allow of
this digression.

In the sketch of Tyler's Green there is shown the village
pond which in some cases was the scene of rural justice.
K 1 29

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

At the end of the pond in olden times was a long plank
which turned on a swivel, with a chair at one end. This
machine was fastened to a frame which ran on wheels, and
when justice had to be administered it was pushed to the
edge of the pond. It was called a ducking-stool, or "cuck-
ing-stool," and was used to duck scolds or brawlers. The

RYE COLESHILL, WARWICKSHIRE BERKSWELL

PILLORIES, STOCK?, AND WHIPPING-POSTS

culprit was placed in the chair, and the other end of the
plank was raised several times, so that the ardour of the
culprit was cooled by frequent immersions in the cold water
of the pond. We give an illustration of the ducking-stool
at Leominster, now in the Priory Church.

We have already caught a glimpse of the stocks at Lymm
(p. 126). This rude instrument of justice stood on the village
green or near the cross, and sometimes beside it, or in con-

130

OLD-TIME PUNISHMENTS

junction with it, a pillory which held fast the head and arms
of the culprit, while the villagers threw stones, rotten eggs,
and other missiles at the unhappy victim of rude rustic
justice. Two miles from Canterbury is the quaint little town
of Fordwich, once a borough and a Cinque Port, now little
more than a village. Its town-hall is a quaint building
which preserves a duckini^-stool. The seats of the old
mayor and aldermen are at the far end of the room ; the
jury-box is on the left ; the ducking-stool on the central
beam ; the prisoner's bar in the centre ; and above you can see

DUCKING-STOOL, LEOMINSTER, HEREFORDSHIRE

the press-gang's drums which used to beat a merry tattoo in the
little town when the press-gang came to carry off some poor
country lad to serve in H.M. Navy. In a north-country
inn there is a sad relic of the story of a pressed man. A
young man rode up to the inn with a horse which had cast
its shoe, holding in his hand the treacherous shoe. The
press-gang were regaling themselves in the hostelry. As
he seemed a vigorous youth they seized him. He asked
leave to nail his shoe to the beam of the staircase, saying
that when he came back from the wars he would come and
reclaim it. But he never came, and the shoe hangs there to
this day, a sad memorial of a gallant sailor who died for his
country in one of Nelson's battles.

One other relic of old times our artist has depicted : the

131

OLD-TIME PUNISHMENTS

dread gibbet-irons wherein the bones of some wretched
breaker of the laws hung; and rattled as the irons creaked
and groaned when stirred by the breeze. No wonder our
villagers fear to walk to the neighbouring cross-roads, where
the dead highwayman or other lawless criminal was hung.
It must have been ghostly and ghastly. I am
tempted to digress and tell many a story of
noted highwaymen, of Bagshot Heath on a
moonlight night, of the haunts of the knights
of the road, the village inns where they sought
refuge and astonished the rustics by their strange
tales. I am tempted to tell of their victims, one
of whom sano; —

Prepared for war, now Bagshot Heath we cross,
Where broken gamesters oft repair their loss,

and of the prudent Lady Brown, who readily
yielded up her purse to the highwaymen, de-
claring afterwards to Horace Walpole that she
did not mind in the least, " there was nothing
but bad money in it. I always keep it on purpose."
But hangings and gibbetings thinned the ranks of these
notorious highwaymen, and happily the village was freed
from the presence of their bodies. The name Gibbet Com-
mon remains in some places to remind us of the lawlessness
of the past, and museums still preserve these dread irons
that once startled poor travellers and kept the rustics to
their own firesides after dark.

GIBBET-
IRONS, RYE

133

BARNS AND DOVECOTES

A CHARMING feature of a village are the old barns
which cluster round the farmstead. The build-
ing of great barns has rather gone out of fashion
since flails and hand-thrashing became extinct,
and we know many new farms which have no barns at all.
Perhaps they are not so necessary now as they once were,
and modern agriculture does not need them. Be that as it
may, the fine old barns are picturesque and attractive build-
ings, and still have their uses. The grandest of them are
the ancient tithe or grange barns formerly attached to some
monastery, built in the fourteenth century, as strong as a
church and as fine as a minster. Happily many of these
mediaeval structures have been spared to us, and the village
is fortunate which possesses one. In one day's excursion
with the Berks Archaeological Society we discovered two of
them, one of the finest in England at Great Coxwell, and
just over the border in Wiltshire the smaller but no less
beautiful fourteenth-century barn at Highworth. It is, of
course, well known that until the year 1836 all tithes were
paid in kind. An old man in Cholsey, Berkshire, remembers
the clerk going round the cornfield and placing a peg in
every tenth sheaf in order to show that it belonged to the
vicar of the parish. All other kinds of grain, hay, wool,
peas, beans, etc., were tithed in the same way. Indeed, a
woman who had ten children thought she ought to pay
tithe, and sent her tenth child to the rector of her parish,

'3+

BARNS AND DOVECOTES

who, being a kind-hearted man, accepted the payment of
this unusual tithe and brought up the child.

The collecting of tithe in kind necessitated a place in
which to store it. Hence tithe barns had to be built, and
from mediaeval times onwards almost every village had its
tithe barn. I am again tempted to digress in order to tell
how this system of tithe-paying grew up. It dates back

A BARN AT DOULTING, SOMERSET

to early Saxon times. Even Ethelbert, the first Christian
king of Kent, converted by Augustine, allowed a tenth to
God, which he called God's Fee, and what was first a
voluntary gift for the support of the Church became a legal
obligation. It is outside our subject to discuss the origin
of tithes. We are inspecting barns, and we understand why
tithe barns were needed. The old monasteries had vast
estates. They had their own barns near their monasteries ;
these were not for tithes, but for the produce of their home

135

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

farms that lay around their monastic house. In other parts
of the county or district they had other large estates which
they called granges, and on these properties they had grange
barns, and each rector or vicar had his tithe barn, which was
much smaller than the others. Sometimes the monastery
took all the tithe of a parish and had its tithe barn, as at
Highworth, and paid back to the vicar something for taking
the dutv. This was unfortunate, as when the monasteries

"l"'l,l" ,

lyli

-*^ii|lliteil«i

BARN AT ARRETON, ISLE OF WIGHT

were dissolved the king and his greedy courtiers took
possession of this monastic tithe and only paid the vicar a
small stipend, and the Church of England has suffered ever
since. More tithe now goes into the hands of laymen than
into those of the parochial clergy.

We give an illustration of the fine barn of the abbots
of Glastonbury at Doulting, Somerset. It is a grand build-
ing, and is of earlier date than most of the great monastic
barns, most of which were built in the fourteenth century.
This is a fine thirteenth-century structure. The walls are

136

BARNS AND DOVECOTES

three feet in thickness, built of the freestone of the neiorh-
bouring quarries. It measures 95^ feet by 60 feet, and has
two porches. The buttresses are thick and massive, and
may have been added later than the date of the original
building. The roof is constructed of fine oak, and is covered
with stone slabs. This was a grange barn belonging to
Glastonbury, where there is a noble abbot's barn, built in
1420, cruciform in plan and much ornamented. Our Berk-
shire barn at Great Coxwell belonged to the Cistercian Abbey
of Beaulieu, and is of immense size. The inside measure-
ments are 152^ feet by 38^ feet, and it rises to a height
of 51 feet to the ridge. The walls are four feet in thickness.
Immense timbers rise from the ground forming piers which
divide the barn into a giant nave with two aisles. There
is a fine porch with a tallat in which the monks are said to
have slept when they came to Coxwell to reap the harvest
on their Berkshire estate. The floor is beaten mud, and
this noble structure is roofed with Stonesfield slate. It is
a grand example of fourteenth-century building. A few
miles away, as I have said, is the Highworth barn, con-
structed much in the same style but on a smaller scale.

There is a good rectory barn at Enstone, Oxfordshire,
built in 1382 by the abbot of Winchcombe at the request
of Robert Mason, the abbot's bailiff. Shirehampton, near
Bristol, has a large barn which perhaps formerly belonged
to Llanthony Abbey, a picturesque building covered with
creepers. Bredon, Worcestershire ; Harmondsworth, Middle-
sex ; Naseby, Northants ; Heyford, Oxfordshire ; Swalcliffe
and Adderbury, all possess wonderful examples of these
mediceval buildings. Our artist gives us a sketch of a
noble barn at Arreton, in the Isle of Wight, which has a
grandly thatched roof gracefully curved, and a large porch.
Together with the other farm buildings it helps to form a
very picturesque group.

Another additional attraction to the manor-house or

137

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

important farm is the pigeon -house or dovecote. Old
monasteries and priories also were allowed to have these
useful buildings. There is a very fine one at Hurley Priory,
Berkshire, and there was a special officer, the columbarius,
whose duty it was to attend to the pigeons in the dovecote.

PIGEON-HOUSE, RICHARDS CASTLE, HEREFORDSHIRE

This building was erected about the year 1307, and is of
great interest. The countless niches, or nests, of chalk
within this picturesque old building are very remarkable.
It must have held countless birds, but when the prior and
convent bargained with John Terry in 1389 to give him
a pension including an annual dole of two hundred pigeons,
the resources of the dovecote must have been severely taxed. ^

1 St. Marys, Hurley, by Rev. F. T. Wcthered, 1898.
138

BARNS AND DOVECOTES

No one but the lord of the manor, the monks, or the
rector was allowed to have a pigeon-house, which played an
important part in the domestic economy of former days.
It provided the only fresh meat that was consumed during
the winter months, when the household depended upon salt
meat except that which the dovecote supplied, and there-
fore it was highly prized, carefully stocked, and zealously
guarded.

These columbaria have not been uninfluenced in their con-
struction by fashion and style. We owe their existence to
the Normans, who constructed massive round dovecotes
entirely of stone. This style lingered on for centuries.
When brickwork was again introduced in the fifteenth
century round brick coluynharia were erected. Half-timbered
ones were also fashionable, timber-framed, filled with wattle
and daub, and subsequently they assumed hexagonal or
octagonal shapes.

Our artist has sketched a picturesque pigeon-house in
Richards Castle, Herefordshire. Existing castle dovecotes
are rare, but doubtless many were built, as their contents
were very useful in case of a siege and during the winter
months. I know not whether homing pigeons were ever
trained to convey messages to other castles summoning aid
for a beleaguered garrison. Rochester and Conisborough
Castles have these useful pigeon-houses. There is a good
circular dovecote at Church Farm, Garway, Herefordshire,
built by the Knights Hospitallers in 1320. Some of these
examples are very large, such as the one at South Littleton,
which measures eighty-three feet in circumference.^ In order
to reach the nests you climb up a ladder which revolves, and
so enables you to reach any particular nest. There are some-
times as many as 1000 nesting-places in these houses, and it
must be difficult for a pigeon to discover its own nest some-

^ "Dovecotes," an article in Home Counties Magazine, by Mr. Berkeley,
Vol. VII, No. 32.

139

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

times if, like humans, birds are ever given to loss of memory.
These nesting-places are cunningly devised. The openings
are six inches square, and they reach fourteen inches into the

riGEOX-HOUSE AT ODDINGLY, WORCESTERSHIRE

substance of the wall. If the cavity were of the same size
throughout its depth the bird would not have room to sit
upon her scanty nest ; it therefore enlarges, right or left,
into an L-shaped cavity ten inches in width. The holes are
arranged twenty inches apart, in rows, each row being ten

140

BARNS AND DOVECOTES

inches above the one below. An alighting-ledge projects
underneath each alternate tier of holes/

We give an illustration of a dovecote at Oddingly,
Worcestershire, a square half-timbered structure which
must have furnished shelter for a vast number of birds. It
is not so vast as the great dovecote at Lewes, which held
4000 nesting-places, and was as big as a moderate-sized
church. It was the property of the monks of the priory,
and we may imagine that the possession ot such a flock
of birds did not endear the reverend brothers to the neigh-
bouring farmers, who were much relieved when the birds
and their owners were compelled to fly away. One ot the
causes of bitternesses which exasperated the peasants of
France and brought about the Revolution, was the existence
of these vast columbarid^ the denizens of which preyed upon
the cornfields of the poor tenants and peasants and made
their farms unproductive.

Many of these dovecotes have disappeared. It is well
that they should be preserved as picturesque and pleasing
objects, and as memorials of mediceval customs and ot the
manners of our forefathers.

1 Herefordshire Pigeon-houses, by Mr. Watkins.

XI
OLD ROADS, BRIDGES AND RIVERS

THE story of our English village, its charm and
fascination, is incomplete without an account of its
roads and trackways. " It you wish to read aright
the history of a district, of a city, or of a village,
you must begin by learning the alphabet of its roads," wisely
observes a writer in Blackwood's Magazine. These are the
oldest of all ancient landmarks. The position of the village,
its plan and boundaries, the story of earthworks, burying-
grounds, church and castle, all depend upon the roads. How
was their course originally determined "i Who first planned
them } Perhaps our earliest ancestors followed the cross-
tracks by which the wild animals descended from the high
ground to the water. Where hard dry roads now run along
the river valleys by the beds of streams there was in ancient
times marsh or far-spreading overflowing sheets of water.
Hence our ancestors followed the natural features of the
hills. Our first roads ran along the highest ridges of the
hills ; subsequently more sheltered ways were sought by
the hill-sides. The shallowest parts of the rivers were sought
where they could find fords. Trails through the woods
became pack-horse roads, were then widened into wagon-
tracks, and at last developed into fine smooth roads. Seme
of the roads by which we travel to-day have been traversed
by an infinite variety of passengers. Our Celtic forefathers,
their Roman conquerors, Saxon hosts, Norman knights,
mediaeval merchants and pilgrims to the shrines of St. Thomas

142

OLD ROADS, BRIDGES AND RIVERS

of Canterbury or our Lady of Walsingham, the wains of the
clothiers piled high with English cloth, gallant cavaliers and
the buff-coated troopers of Cromwell, all follow each other in a
strange procession along these country roads, and we have
seen already the ghosts of the old stage coaches, the " Light-
ning" and the "Quicksilver," and heard the cheery notes of
the post-horn, which were far more melodious than the hoot
of the motor-car.

Straight through the heart of the village runs the old
Roman road. It was "old" before the Romans came. You
can see on the hills around earthworks and camps that
guarded this road, and are relics of British tribes and pre-
historic races which flourished here lone before the Romans
came to conquer our island. There is the great Watling
Street, Ermine Street, the Icknield Way or the road of the
Iceni, ancient trackways of the tribes. High on the Berk-
shire downs this last road runs, known as the Ridgeway,
while below it is the later road, the " Portway," probably
British too, but used and improved by the Romans. From
the east coast to the west the whole road ran ; Watling
Street from Dover through London to the north ; the Fosse
and Ermine Street were west-country roads, and there were
numerous others. The Romans transformed these British
trackways, levelled, straightened, and paved them, and formed
new lines of roads leading from one to another of the many
stations which they established in all parts of the country.
Camden describes the Roman ways in Britain as running in
some places through drained fens, in others through low
valleys, raised and paved, and we have traversed the famous
High Street on the top of Westmoreland hills, and dug
a few inches beneath the turf to find the pavement laid
by these wonderful people. No wonder the Saxon folk
deemed these ways the work of demons or demi-gods, and
called the road from Staines to Silchester the Devil's High-
way.

143 .

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

Fords were at first used by the Romans for crossing
streams and rivers, but these were ill-suited to their require-
ments, and during their domination the first era of bridge-
building set in. So substantial were these structures that
through centuries of Saxon and Norman rule they survived
and remained in use almost to our own day. After the
Norman Conquest, when the country settled down and new
towns and villages arose, another period of bridge-buildinrf

SONNING ON THAMES, BERKSHIRE

began, which has left us many beautiful examples of architec-
tural art. Their builders were great landowners and mer-
chants, wealthy abbeys, special guilds like that at Maiden-
head, which not only erected the bridge but afterwards
maintained it, and the corporations of cities and towns. It
was considered a religious work, this bridge-building, and a
chapel was not infrequently built on the bridge, wherein the
traveller could pray for the soul of the kind builder,
and seek a blessing on his journey and imp'ore a sate
passage across the river. These old bridges have been

H+

OLD ROADS, BRIDGES AND RIVERS

restored and repaired again and again, but they often retain
a considerable part of their ancient structure. The Kentish
river Medway Is spanned by several of these old bridges.
There Is the old bridge at Yaldlng, with Its deeply embayed
cut-waters of rough ragstone, which have been frequently
repaired, but It Is substantially the original bridge as it was
constructed in the fifteenth century. There Is the pictu-
resque bridge at Twyford, Kent ; another at Latlngford with
a buttressed cut-water ; another at Teston ; and the fine
fifteenth-century bridge at East Farleigh, with four ribbed
and pointed arches and bold cut-waters of wrought stone.

We give an illustration of the picturesque bridge at
Sonning, Berkshire, beautiful in colour, cool and comely In
its arches, the subject of many paintings. There are three
bridges across the Thames at this delightfully picturesque old
village, and parts of them have been already gradually re-
built with iron fittings, and further demolition is threatened,
even if It has not already taken place. Originally these
bridges were the glory of the village and date from mediaeval
times. They are built of brick, and good brick Is a material
as nearly imperishable as any that man can build with.
There is hardly any limit to the life of a brick or stone
bridge, whereas an iron or steel bridge requires constant
supervision. The oldest iron bridge in this country — at
Coalbrookdale, in Shropshire — has just failed after 123 years
of life. It was worn out by old age, whereas the Roman bridge
at Rimini, the medlasval ones at St. Ives, Bradtord-on-Avon,
and countless other places In this country and abroad, are in
daily use, and likely to remain serviceable for many centuries
to come. The increased use of terrible traction-engines
of gigantic weight, drawing heavy wagons containing tons
of bricks, creates fears in the hearts of the lovers of these
ancient structures, and possibly those which lie In the track
of these fearsome vehicles will not long resist their on-
slaughts. They should be ruthlessly forbidden to cross
L 145

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

them, and their owners compelled to construct others more
suitable to their unwieldy weight. Hideous iron-girder
erections are good enough for them.

The lore of old bridges is a fascinating subject. Abingdon
has a bridge built in 1389 and connected with the Fraternity
of the Holy Cross. The Guild had a Bridge Priest to pray
for the souls of the benefactors and founders — John Brett
and John Houchens, and Sir Peter Besils who gave the

COLESHILL, WARWICKSHIRE

Stone and left houses, the rents of which were devoted to its
repair, and Geoffrey Barbour who gave some wealth for the
same object. The Guild of St. Andrew and St. Mary Mag-
dalene, established by Henry VI in 1452, maintained the
bridge at Maidenhead. It existed as early as 1298, when a
grant was made for its repair. The town owes its origin to
the bridge, as Camden tells us that after its erection Maiden-
head began to have inns and to be so frequented as to
outvie its neighbouring mother. Bray, a much more ancient
place. The present graceful bridge was built in 1772 from

146

OLD ROADS, BRIDGES AND RIVERS

designs by Sir Roland Taylor. A beautiful old bridge con-
nected Reading and Caversham, and it had a chapel which
contained many relics of saints ; but it has been replaced by
a hideous iron-girder structure. We give a sketch of the
graceful old bridge at Coleshill, Warwickshire, with its six
arches and massive cut-waters. The bridge and river, the

< ~ :■- '"\*»»^\.,s . .

SUNRISE ON THE STOUR AT NAYLAND, SUFFOLK

village street and houses embedded in trees, and the tall spire
of the church, form a beautiful group.

The rivers and streams that flow through or near many
villages add greatly to their charm. In Berkshire we have
our Thames, which poets call " stately " or " silvery," the
great watery highway traversed by Saxons and then by ruth-
less Danes, who burned the towns and villages along its
banks, and left behind them weapons which are eagerly
sought after by the antiquary. The whole story of the
Thames would fill volumes from the time when it was a
wide-spreading river opening out into large lagoons until

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

it contracted its bed, and was at last chained and locked and
bound, and made to turn innumerable mills and convey
securely barges and boats on its comparatively smooth sur-
face. It can still be angry and rage and swell with mighty
floods and torrents, but it invites with pleasant smiles the
water-idlers on a summer afternoon and the keen oarsmen
who love to strive along its course during the greatest
regatta of the world. But the smaller and less stately rivers
and streams are no less inviting to the lover of nature ;
rivers just wide enough for small boats, where you can idle
and fish or watch the kingfishers. Such a river is the Stour
at Nayland, Suffolk, or the Rother in Sussex, where " one
can walk by its side for miles and hear no sound save the
music of repose — the soft munching of the cows in the
meadows, the chuckle of the water as a rat slips in, the
sudden yet soothing plash caused by a jumping fish. Around
one's head in the evening the stag-beetle buzzes with its
multiplicity of wings and fierce lobster-like claws out-
stretched."^ In summer the river that flows through the
village looks enchanting with its wealth of lilies, reeds, and
rush " with its lovely staff of blossom just like a little
sceptre"; the low riverside meadows that "flaunt their mari-
golds " ; or in winter, when

Nipped in their bath the stalk-reeds one by one
Flash each its clinging diamond in the sun.

Possibly near your village you may find a melancholy long-
disused canal. It is now covered with green weeds and
■overgrown with reeds and rushes. No barge ever tries to
make its way along it. Just a hundred years ago it was
dug with eager zeal. Thousands of pounds were spent
upon it. A network of such canals was made late in the
eighteenth and early in the nineteenth century. For a few
jears they rejoiced in their strength. They connected

^ Highways and Byzcays in Sussex, by E. V. Lucas.
148

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

navigable rivers. Barges laden with coals and goods of all
kinds conveyed their treasures to country towns and villages.
A roaring trade was done at the wharfs, and all was anima-
tion, when the tiresome railways were invented and killed
the canal, which remains silent, derelict. It is a pathetic
story. Some hopeful people declare they have a great future
and may yet be used ; but in the meantime they are still,
the homes of water-fowl and fish, their banks glorious with
reeds and flowers, while bridges and locks are not without
a peculiar charm, and afford subjects for melancholy philoso-
phers.

We have traversed the old roads, crossed bridges and, like
our village rustics, loved to linger upon them, and watched
the river as it flows and the stagnant waters of the canal.
Our course takes us homewards to our inn, and we have yet
another bridge to cross, a footbridge like that at Coughton,
Warwickshire, which Mr. Sydney R. Jones has so cleverly
drawn. It does not look very strong and safe, and a heavy
mian would like perhaps to have a bridge-chapel at its side
in order that he might pray for a safe crossing. It is old
and shakes terribly as we cross, but we pass in safety, and
wander to our resting-place for our last night's sojourn in
the village.

XII

SUNDIALS AND WEATHERCOCKS

IT is not very easy for villagers to know the exact time
by Greenwich. When the wind is favourable we
sometimes hear the distant boom of the Aldershot
gun which is discharged at one o'clock in the day
and at 9.30 p.m., or the more prosaic sound of the steam-
whistle of a neighbouring timber- works. Some village
churches can boast of a clock, an old
and venerable piece of mechanism
which is guaranteed not to keep very
accurate time. Moreover, it has only
one hand and can only tell the hours,
and the minutes have to be conjectured.
But we have our sundials, and in the
days before cheap watches abounded
they were the only means for telling
the time.

These were often placed on the south
wall of the church or on the tower, and
when the sun shone upon it and indi-
cated that the hour of Divine service
was approaching, the clerk began to
ring one of the bells or the ringers rang a merry peal.
When the sun refused to shine, or when the nights were
dark and the clerk had to ring the curfew, the time must
have been somewhat uncertain unless he possessed a clock.
The sundial often stands in the churchyard upon a

151

tjfJttit\g(os\^

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

pedestal, or when the upper part of the churchyard cross
has perished the stem has been used for the purpose. Chil-
ham churchyard, Kent, has a very beautiful sundial with a
very graceful stone pedestal designed by Inigo Jones. At
Kilham, East Yorkshire, a stone coffin sunk into the ground
has been used as the stem of a sundial which was placed
there in 1769.^ We give an illustration of the massive sun-
dial which stands in the churchyard of Elmley Castle village,
Worcestershire. Viewed in the framework of the ancient
doorway of the church-porch with the village beyond, it
forms a very pleasing object. These primitive timekeepers
are often adorned with ornamental ironwork, produced by
the skill of the village blacksmith, and bear appropriate in-
scriptions. There is a very curious one cut in stone near
the sundial at Seaham Church, Durham :

The natural clockwork by the Mighty One

Wound up at first, and ever since has gone :

No pin drops out, its wheels and springs are good,

It speaks its Maker's praise tho' once it stood ;

But that was by the order of the Workman's power|;

And when it stands again it goes no more.

There is a very charming inscription on the sundial in
Shenstone churchyard, near Lichfield. It runs :

If o'er the dial glides a shade, redeem
The time ; for, lo, it passes like a dream.
But if 'tis all a blank, then mark the loss
Of hours unblest by shadows from the cross.

The dial is formed by a cross surmounting a pillar, the cross
being placed in a leaning position, the arms of which cast
shadows on the figures engraved on the sides of the shaft.

Others content themselves with simpler rhymes, sententious
mottoes, or appropriate texts from the Bible, such as the in-
scription at Isleworth, Middlesex, which runs :

Watch and pray.

Time passeth away like a shadow.

^ Curious Church Customs^ by W. Andrews, p, 156.

'iiillKlh "^ ^ > v.v^

THE SUNDIAL IN ELMLEY CASTLE VILLAGE CHURCHYARD,
WORCESTERSHIRE

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

The motto on an ancient dial at Millrigg, near Penrith,
inscribed by some member of the Order of Knights Hospi-
tallers of St. John of Jerusalem, is worth recording. It is
in the form of a dialogue between the dial personified and
the passenger :

Diall
Stale, Passinger.
Tell me thy name,
Thy nature.

Passr
Thy name is die
All, I a mort all
creation.

Diall
Since my name
And thy nature

Soe agree,
Thinke on thy selfe
When thov looks

Upon me.

The Eyam sundial is remarkable. It has the names of
several places inscribed upon it in order to show the differ-
ences of time, and also the tropics are marked with the motto :

Induce am mum sapient em, 1773*

The multiplication of clocks and watches has rendered the
use of sundials obsolete. But though rare in villages, clocks
can claim a considerable antiquity. Peter Lightfoot, a monk
of Glastonbury, was an ingenious maker who fashioned
in 1335 for his monastery a wonderful clock which not only
told the time, but made some figures move so as to represent
a knightly tournament. Another of his works of skill exists
at Wimborne Minster. Some village clockmakers two
hundred years ago were very clever, and have left us some
admirable "grandfathers" which are now eagerly sought
by collectors. I have been fortunate enough to acquire
three such clocks, two of which date from the end of the
seventeenth century. Villagers are very skilful in knowing

•5 +

SUNDIALS AND WEATHERCOCKS

the time without referring either to clock or watch, and
their wits are especially keen when the dinner -hour is
approaching.

They are also remarkable prophets concerning the weather
and the changes in the direction of the wind. They watch
the vane on the church spire, and homely rhymes enable
them to prophesy what the weather will be. Thus the
Wiltshire peasant tells :

When the wind is north-west

The weather is at the best ;

If the rain comes out of the east,

'Twill rain twice twenty-four hours at the least.

Another rhyme assures us :

A southerly wind with showers of rain,
Will bring the wind from west again.

The north wind brings snow, wet, and cold. A north-east
wind is neither good for man nor beast. But

The wind in the west
Suits every one best.

The villagers can tell the kind of weather to be expected
from watching the animals, who are famous prophets. Thus,
an ass's bray foretells rain. The bees stay at home when it
is likely to be wet. A crowing cock at even, or a bawling
peacock, prognosticates rain. High-flying rooks or low-
flying swallows predict bad weather ; and

When black snails cross your path
Black clouds much moisture hath.

Whatever may be the value of this weather-wisdom, the
vane on the church spire never lies. It is a beautiful and
graceful object, which again bears witness to the skill of the
village blacksmith. Its form is traditional, and has been
handed down to our own day from the time of St. Dunstan.
Its popular name we3.ther-cock suggests its shape. Why
was this bird selected to preside over our spires and turrets ?

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

It is the emblem of vigilance. Hugo de Sancto Victore, in
the Mystical Mirrour of the Churchy tells us :

" The cock representeth the preacher. For the cock in
the deep watches of the night divideth the hours thereof
with his song, and arouseth the sleepers. He foretelleth the
approach of day, but first he stirreth up himself to crow
by the striking of his wings. Behold ye these things mysti-
cally, for not one of them is there without meaning. The
sleepers be the children of this world lying in sins. The
cock is the company of preachers, which do preach sharply,
do stir up the sleepers to cast away the works of darkness,
which also do foretell the coming of the light, when they
preach of the Day of Judgment and of future glory. But
wisely before they preach unto others do they rouse them-
selves by virtue from the sleep of sin and do chasten their
bodies."

There was a weathercock on the cathedral of Winchester
in 961 A.D., and Wulstan relates how it caught the morning
sun and filled the traveller with amazement :

" The golden weathercock lording it over the city ; up
there he stands over the heads of the men of Winchester,
and up in mid-air seems nobly to rule the western world ; in
the claw is the sceptre of command, and like the all-vigilant
eye of the ruler, it turns every way."

Constant allusions to the erection of weathercocks are
found in old records. Although the cock was the usual
symbol, other forms may be found occasionally. A ship
is sometimes seen surmounting the steeple, and the symbol
of the saint to whom the church is dedicated is occasionally
selected as a vane. Thus, in London, St. Peter's, Cornhill,
has a key ; St. Lawrence, Jewry, a gridiron ; St. Botolph's,
Aldgate, an arrow ; and St. Clement Danes, an anchor.

But weathercocks are not confined to churches, and our
artist has discovered several excellent examples of domestic
vanes that grace the roofs of farm buildings, half-timbered
houses, and humbler dwellings. In former days it was con-

156

SUNDIALS AND WEATHERCOCKS

CLUN, SALOP

sidered an important privilege to be allowed to set up a vane,

and no one was permitted to erect a weathercock upon his

house unless he were descended from

a noble family. Indeed, some ancient

authors assert that none could attain

to that honour who had not been

foremost at scaling the walls in an

assault upon some city, or had first

planted their banners on the ramparts.

The form of these domestic vanes was

usually the armorial bearings of the

family, the crest or banner. The

arrow, cock, and banner are common

designs. Thus, at Clun, Salop, there

is an arrow, and at Leominster a half- —

timbered house called the Grange has

a banner inscribed with the date 1687.

It is interesting to note that this house was formerly the old
town hall built by John Abel (see p. 1 1 8), and
that when the townspeople wanted to demolish
the structure it was bought by Mr. Arkwright
and re-erected in his grounds as a resi-
dence. The beautiful ironwork of this
example should be noticed. The dovecote
at Eardisland has a fish for its vane, and a
cock and a hound are other forms shown
in the illustrations. Even the cottage at
Mansell Lacy, Herefordshire, has a little
"~^ (V^ vane. It is a curious Herefordshire custom,

I II notes our artist, to place a twig at the

finish of the thatch in such a manner that
it will revolve. To this twig is affixed the
figure of a bird made out of thatching-straw,
the whole thus serving the purpose of a
The accuracy of such a vane, I should imagine,
157

HALF-TIMBER

HOUSE, CALLED

THE GRANGE,

LEOMINSTER

weathercock.

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

may be a questionable matter, but that it revolves some-
what there is no doubt. It forms a very pleasing finish to
the ridge of a thatched roof.

We have not exhausted the charms of our village. That
would be a large volume which recorded all its attractions.
There is the fascination of the wild-life,
the birds and beasts, the butterflies and
insects, that dwell in the neighbouring
woodland, the treasures of the trout-
j^\::.-----^ stream with its medley of exquisite

'-^ ^JiTj things, where many a tiny creature finds

sanctuary, undisturbed by the world's
rude noise or the tread of the tourist.
That wood is a haven of rest, a temple
of silence broken only by the song of
the birds, the sudden cry of a jay, or the
scamper of a rabbit in the undergrowth.
The beauty of the wild flowers — honey-
suckles, mints, St. John's wort, wild roses,
wild thyme, and a host of others — consti-
tute a charm that never fails to please,
for those who love Nature's treasures.
The colours change in the glowing carpet
of the woods. Now it is yellow with
primroses ; now blue with wild hya-
cinths ; now the giant bracken puts forth
its head shaped like a shepherd's crook, and soon it grows
as high as one's head ; and as the autumn season advances
it turns its green fronds into dull gold that glisten in the
sunlight. Even in winter the woods lose not their beauty
and their charm.

And now I come to the greatest charm of all, far greater
than storied minster, palatial manor, or picturesque cottage,
and that is the villagers themselves. Perhaps some day
I may tell you more about them. They are the real charm

158

THE DOVECOTE,

EARDISLAND,
HEREFORDSHIRE

SUNDIALS AND WEATHERCOCKS

of our picture. All that I have told you is the tramework.
I could tell you strange stories of their beliefs, their super-
stitions, their shrewdness, their old-fashioned courtesies,
their gentlemanliness, their sturdiness and bravery. But
that is another story, and must be left for a future time.

We have tried to paint the picture of our village, and to
see all its graces and perfections. Mr. Sydney R. Jones,

SHELDON,

WARWICKSHIRE

MANSELL LACY,
HEREFORDSHIRE

GREAT CHESTERFORD,
ESSEX

has drawn them with skilful pen, and I have but en-
deavoured to point out their many beauties. I have told
little of the buried treasures chat this hamlet holds, little
of the lore and legend, little of the great men who have lived
here and added honour to our annals. The parish chest
is still locked, and the documents at the record office 1 have
severely left alone. But we have seen how our village grew
up from babyhood to man's estate — I will not allow that
even now it is very old, or getting into its dotage — we have
looked upon its treasures, its wealth of beauty, its rural
homesteads, its paradise of flowers. We have admired the

159

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

wondrous skill of our forefathers who wrought so surely
and so well, and so effectively used the materials which
Nature gave them, whether stone or brick or timber, tile
or slate, and thus discovered the true secret of the harmony
with nature, the chief characteristic of English village archi-
tecture. We may learn something from their example. We
may learn to abstain from spoiling their work by the erection
of cheap and inferior buildings which degrade the landscape
by their crude colours and graceless form. We may learn to
adhere to the same principles which guided them, cultivate
the same means, and imbue our minds with the same sense of
harmony and reverence tor antiquity, and then the charm
of the English village will not be allowed to decay. Can it
not be retained ? Cottages that are insanitary can be
improved and made sanitary without being pulled down.
Small holdings may attract new-comers, and honest, thrifty
labourers may become their own masters and farm their own
land. We who live in the country are a little incredulous
about the results of the laws which some of those good
members of Parliament who know nothing about us frame
for our benefit ; but if in their wisdom they can devise any-
thing to improve our conditions of life, we shall not be
ungrateful. Sometimes we, whose lot it is to live in an
English village, sigh for a larger outlook, a more extended
sphere of work, for contact with kindred souls in the great
world of art, literature, or science ; but life in the country
is wondrously attractive to those who love nature, and we
are thankful that we have been called to work amidst the
fields and lanes of rural England, and are able to appreciate
the charm of an English village.

FINIS

INDEX

Note. — The use of black figures denotes that the page reference is to an illustration.

A Beaulieu, Hants, cottage at, 64^

Abbots Morton, Worcestershire, 6I5 9

5r Bedfordshire. The kitchen well, 97,

Abel, John, i 18, 157 101

Abingdon, Berks, bridge at, 146 Berkshire, a garden in, 93-4 ; parget-
Acton Trussel, Staffordshire. Cut ' ting in, 72, 75

hedge and thatched verandah, 92, Berkswell. The stocks, 130

Alfriston, Sussex, parsonage at, 45

Almshouses, 20, 111-114

Ancaster quarries, 6

Anchor-hold, 26

Angle-posts, 51,54

Appleton, Bucks, 91, 93

Architecture of churches, 24; of cot-
tages, 47-71

Armorials, carved, 51, 74

Arreton, Isle of Wight, great barn at,

136* 137

Ashford-in-the- Water, Derbyshire, ! Bridges, 144-50

Berrynarbor, Devon, 6? 8

Bewcastle, cross at, 1 1 9

Biddenden, Kent, 14, 15; old cus-
tom at, 14

Binscombe, cottage at, 62

Bishop Auckland, cross at, I 2 1

Blacksmith, the village, 97, 1 00-101,
155 ; shop, 104

Bray, lych-gate at, 23

Brenchley, Kent, 52, 57

Brick, 8

Brick-nogging, 57

Broom-squires, 108-10

Building materials, 4

Burford, Oxon. A cottage window,

77, 81
Burwash, Sussex, 70? 7 1
Buttresses, 24

107

Audley End, Essex. The almshouses,

113, 11 +

Bagshot Heath and highwaymen, i 3 3
Ballingdon. An Essex mill, 1 08,

109
Barge-boards, 63, 66-9
Barley, Herts. Inn sign, 100, 103
Barns, 134-7
Bay, A, 57-8; central, 56; windows, , Carisbrook, from the Castle Hill, 17,

51» 81 I 21

M 161

Calbourne, Isle of Wight, 68, 7 1
Canals, 148-9

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

Cavendish, Suffolk, 14, 17, 69? 71

Chalegreen, Isle of Wight. A gar-
den entrance, 86> 87

Chapels on bridges, 144.

Characteristics of villages, 17-22

Chest, the parish, 32, 3 3

Childrey, grammar school at, 1 1 7-
18

Childs Wickham, Glos. Chimney,
79; the cross, 124, 125

Chilham, Kent, sundial at, 1 5 2

Chilmark quarries, 6

Chimneys, 69, 79-81

Chimney-crane and hanger, 77

Church, village, 17, 23-33

Churchyard crosses, i 19-21

Churchyards, 23-4, 20> 29

Clare, Suffolk. Inn sign, 103

Clipping trees, 87, 88, 91, 92, 92

Clocks, 151, 154

Cloth trade, i 3 2

Clun, Shropshire, lych-gate, 26 ; ^ane
at, 157

Coaching days, 95

Cocks as vanes, origin of, 155-6

Codford St. Peter, Wiltshire. Thatch-
ing, 67, 7 1

Coleshill, Warwickshire, the bridge,
146, 147 '■> the whipping post, 130

Columbaria, 138-41

Cooking implements, old, 77

Cornish cottages, 8

Corsham, Wiltshire, the almshouses
at, 114, 115

Cotswold, a finial, 80 ; houses, 80-2 ;
stone slabs, 64

Cottages: architecture of, 47-71;
decoration of; 72-82 ; description
of typical, 49 ; details of, 72-82 ;
interiors of, 74-7 ; modern, 47

Coughton, Warwickshire. The foot-
bridge, 149, 150

Croscombe, Somerset. An old house,
formerly the First and Last Inn,
and mill-dam, 97, 98 ; cottage
doorway, 77

Crosses: village, 119-28; churchyard,
119; market, i 20 ; wayside, I 2 5

Cross-legged effigies, 33

Cumberland, cottages of, 8

Dame schools, 1 14-15

Deane, Northants. The Sea Horse

Inn, 96, 97
Derbyshire villages, 8, 10
Description of an old cottage, 49-50
Devil's Highway, 143
Dickens, Charles, on the culture of

flowers, 84
Dinton Green, Bucks, 128, 129
Ditcheat Church, Somerset, 23, 27
Domestic vanes, 156-7
Doors and doorways of churches, 28 ;

cottages, 74, 76-8
Dorset and Hants, varieties of walling

from, 57
Doulting, Somerset, a barn at, 135,

136
Dovecotes, 116, 138-41
Ducking-stool, 1 30, 131, 132

Eardisland, Herefordshire, the gram-
mar school, 116, 1 18 ; the dovecote
vane, 157, 158

East Hendred, Berkshire, 104, 105

Eleanor crosses, 125

Elmley Castle village churchyard. The
sundial, 152, 153

Englishmen's love of gardens, 84-85;

Enstone, Oxfordshire, barn at, 137

[62

INDEX

Epitaphs, 24

Essex, external plaster (pargetting)

from, 73
Evelyn's description of the squire's

garden, 83
Evolution of the modern mansion, 44-5
Ewelme, Oxon., i i i, 112, 117
Eyam, cross at, 121 ; sundial at, i 54

Farleigh Hungerford, Somerset, 5, 8

Farmhouses, 42

" Filling in " of half-timber work, 57

Flowers in cottage gardens, 86, 90-2 ;
names of, 90

Flyford Flavel, Worcestershire, in-
terior of the Union Inn, 97, 99

Fonts, 28

Footbridges, 150

Fordwich, Kent, the Town-hall, 131,

132

Foreign villages compared with Eng-
lish, I
Formal gardens, 92
Fulling mill at East Hendred, 104

Galleting or garneting, 62

Garden of cottage, 49, 84-94

Garden paths, 88

Gardens, village, 83-94

Garnacott (near Bideford). A cottage

fire-place, 74, 78
Garway, Herefordshire, dovecote at,

139
Geology in its relation to building, 4
Gibbet-irons, i 3 3

Gloves made in Worcestershire, 106
"God's Acre," 23
God's hostels, 1 1 1-14

Godshill village. Isle of Wight, 17, 19
Gothic spirit retained, 74, 80
Grammar schools, 1 16-18
Great Chesterford, Essex, 55, 60 ;

vane at, 159
Great Coxwell, 134, 137
Great Tew, Oxon., cottages at, 66>

69-71
Greens, village, 20-21, 128-9; crosses

on, 1 2 5
Guilds for supporting bridges, 146

Half-timbered houses, 50-60

Hall, the central, tradition of, 42 ;

diminution in use of, 45
Hants and Dorset, varieties of walling

from, 57
Harvington, Worcestershire. The

Haunted Hall, 37, 38
Haunted houses, 38
Heraldic arms on houses, 51, 74; as

weathercocks, i 5 7
Herefordshire : cottage vanes, i 5 7-8 ;

market-houses, 118; John Abel's

work in, 118
Herring-bone work, 58
Herts, external plaster details (par-
getting), from, 73
Hexham, cross at, 121
Highwaymen, 133
Highworth, barn at, 136
Hinxton, Cambridgeshire, 62, 65
Horsham stone, 63-4
Hour-glass in pulpits, 30, 3 2
Hurley, Berks, pigeon-house at, 138
Hurstmonceux Castle, Sussex, 35,

36-7

Ilkley, cross at, 121

[63

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

Industries, village, 102-10 I Lucas's Hospital, Wokingham, 114

Ingle-nooks, 74, 78, 80 j Lych-gate, 23, 26

Initials carved on houses, 73-4, 74, ' Lyme Regis, 58

81 Lymm, Cheshire, cross and stocks, 126

Inn signs, 97-103

Inns, 20, 95-100

Interiors, 74-9, 81, 99, 101

Intertie framed work, 56-7 , Maidenhead, bridge at, 146

Iron bridges inferior to brick and ; Manor-house, 20, 34, 38-45

stone, 145
Ironwork, village, in inn signs, 97
Isle of Wight, cottage gardens, 87 ;

villages in, 19, 21, 68
Isleworth, Middlesex, sundial at, 152
Italian style, the, 34 ; in hour-glass

stands, 32, 103 ; in vanes, 157

Kentish rag, 6

Mansell Lacy, Herefordshire, 59, 65 ;
cottage, vane at, 157, 159

Market crosses, 121-2

Market-house at Leominster, 157; at
Pembridge, Herefordshire, 122 ; at
Somerton, Somerset, 122 ; at Wat-
lington, Oxfordshire, 13, 14

Market-houses, 14, 122; built by
John Abel, 1 1 8

Marston Magna, Somerset, ingle-nook
at, 80 ; cottage doorway, 79

Kilham, East Yorkshire, sundial at, , Marston Sicca, Gloucestershire, 65, 69

152 j Materials used in buildings, 4

King's Norton from the green, Wor- i Mcdway bridges, 145

cestershire, 23, 25 i Milford, Surrey, inn at, 97

Knowle, Warwickshire, farmhouse : Miller, "the Jolly," 108

Millrigg, Penrith, curious sundial

motto at, 154
Mills, village corn, 106-8
Misereres, 32

Lace made in Bucks and Devon, 106 , Modern cottages, 47
Leominster : The Grange, vane from, ; " Modern Practical Carpentry " by G.

near, 42 ; inn sign, 103
L

157 ; the ducking-stool, 131
"Leper's window," 32
Lewes, dovecote at, 141
Limestone quarries, 4
Lingfield, Surrey, old village shop at,

102
Little Budworth, Cheshire, headless

cross, 125-8
Little Hadham Church, Herts, 31 ;

screen in, 32
Little Hempton, manor house at, 40

Ellis, 56
Monastic barns, 135-7
Montacute, Somerset, a cottage bay,

5o» 51
Monuments, 33
Moor Hall, Humphries End, near

Stroud, 39, 40
Moreton Pinkney, Northants, ic, n
Mortar, the strength of old, 60
Mottoes on sundials, 152
Mural paintings, 33

164

INDEX

Nayland, Suffolk, the Stour at, 147
Newport, Essex, cottage at, 53, 58,

60
Norman architecture, 24
Northamptonshire, i o

Oddingley, Worcestershire, pigeon-
house, 140, 141
Oolitic limestone, 6
Ovens, 75
Overhanging storeys, 53

Pargetting, 53, 60, 72, 73, 75

Parish Chest, the, 33, 132

Parsonages, mediaeval, 45

Parvise, 26

Pembridge, Herefordshire, the old

market-house, 122
Pet worth, 63
Pews, 30

Pigeon-houses, 1 3 8-4 i
Pillories, 130
Plaster-work, 72
Pond, the village, 129, i 50
Porch, cottage, 63 j the church, 26,

117
Porlock Weir, Somerset, 7, 8
Post and Pan, 56
Poundsbridge, Kent, 54, 60
Press-gang, the, i 3 i
Preston - on - Stour, Warwickshire,

Frontispiece
Projecting storeys, 5 1 -4
Pulpits, 30, 31

Quainton almshouses, i 14
Quarries of building stone, 4-6

Reading, Berks, bridge at, 147

Reading Street, Kent, brick and flint
cottages, 58, 63

Rectories, 45

Rectory garden, the, 83-4

Rectory, the old thatched, 68-9

Reigate building-stone, 4

Richard's Castle, Herefordshire,
pigeon-house, 138, 139

Ridge-tiling, 66

Ringwood, Hants, a stormy sunset, 1 7,
18

Rivers and streams, 147-8

Roads, 142-3

Roman roads, 143

Roofs of churches, 28-9 ; half-
timbered houses, 56

Roses, 90-2

Rother river, Sussex, 148

Rowington, Warwickshire, a farm-
house, 42, 44

Rushlight holders, 77

Ruskin on preservation of old build-
ings, 48

Ruthwell, cross at, 119

Rye, gibbet-irons, 133 ; the pillory,
130

Saxon crosses, 119-21

Schools, 20, 1 14-18

Seaham, Durham, sundial at, 1 5 2

Selborne, Hants, from the Hanger,

16, 17
Sevenhampton, Gloucestershire, 127»

129
Shapwick, Dorset, 123* 125
Sheldon, Warwickshire, 159
Shenstonc, near Lichfield, sundial at,

1 si

THE CHARM OF THE ENGLISH VILLAGE

Shere, Surrey. " God's Acre," 29

Shirehampton, barn at, 137

Shop, the village, 102

Signs and signboards, 97-100

Skull, story of a, 38

Somerset crosses, 121

Somerton, Somerset, the market-place,

121, 122
Sonning, Berks, 144, 145
South Littleton, dovecote at, 139
South Stoke Church, Oxon., hour-glass

bracket, 30
South Warnborough, Hants, cottage

topiary, 88, 93
Sports, village, i 28
Spratton, Northants, a cottage window,

79» 82
Squire, the old, 38
Squire's garden, the, 83
Stability of English villages, 2
Stanton-in-the-Peak, Derbyshire, 9,

10 ; a doorway at, 74, 76
Stocks, 126* I 30
Stone slate roofs, 64, 6(>
Stones used in building, 4
Stonesfield slates, 64
Stoney Middleton, Derbyshire, 10
Stour river, Suffolk, 148
Streams, 147, 148
Stretton Sugwas, Herefordshire, garden

entrance, 87, 93
Sturry, Kent, the blacksmith's shop,

102, 104
Sudbury, Suffolk, inn sign, 103
Suffolk, Duke of, founder of Ewelme

almshouses, i 1 3
Suffolk villages, 14; plaster details

(pargetting) from, 73
Sulgrave, Northants, a cottage entrance,

89, 93
Sundials, 120, • 5 '-)
Sussex houses, 63

Sutton Courtney, Berks, 12, 13;
manor-house at, 40 ; a cottage win-
dow, 79, 82

Sutton Green, near Stanton Harcourt,
Oxon., farmhouse, 42, 43

Symbols of saints used as vanes, 156

Tadcaster quarries, 6

Tennyson's description of cottage

garden, 84
Thames, the, 147-8
Thatched roofs, 68-9
Tiled roofs, 65-6
Tile-hung houses, 60
Timber used in construction of houses,

8, 50-60
Timber-framed houses, construction of,

50-57
Tithe and Tithe-barns, 134-7
Tong, Salop, the churchyard cross, 120
Tottenhoe quarries, 6
Traditional style of building, 2
Transom-framed houses, 56
Trent, Dorsetshire, a cottage garden,

85,87
Tunbridge Wells, new sandstone of, 4

Tyler's Green, Penn, Bucks, the

pond, 129

Upton Snodbury, Worcestershire, a
cottage porch, 63? 66

Vanes, 155-8

Varieties of English villages, 2
Vicarages, 45, 46
Villagers, 158

i66

INDEX

Villages, English, beauty of, i, 2, 22 ;
characteristics of, 17-22 ; compared
with foreign, i ; industries of,
102-110; stability of, 2; variety
of, 2, 3

Walling, great variety of, 57, 62

Wantage, almshouse at, i 1 1

Wargrave, inn at, 100

Watermills, village, 106, 107, 108

Watlington, Oxon. The market-
house, 13

Wayside crosses, i 2 5

Weathercocks, 155-8

Weather-lore, i 5 5

Weobley, Herefordshire, 3, 8 ; porch
of the old grammar school, 117, 118

West Hendred, Berks, a garden at,

93-4

West Wycombe, Bucks, 13, 14
Whalley, crosses, 119
Whipping-posts, i 30
Whittington, sundial at, 151
Wild flowers, 158
Wild-life of the country, 158
Winchcombe, coat-of-arms from, 74
Winchester, vane at, 156
Windows, cottage, 79, 82
Window-gardens, 88-9
Windmills, 108
Winson, Gloucestershire, cottages at,

48, 50
Woodmen, 108
Wool, Dorset. The manor-house and

bridge, 4.0, 41
Worksworth quarries, 6

Yeoman's house, the, 42

WILLIAM BRENDON AND SON, LTD.
PRINTERS. PIVMOUTH

A List of Books on Architecture, Decorative
Art, etc., for Amateurs and Art Lovers,
Published and sold by B. T. BATSFORD

OLD ENGLISH COTTAGES AND FARM HOUSES. A Series of

Volumes designed to illustrate minor Domestic Architecture. Each volume contains loo
Artistic Collotype Plates, accompanied by Descriptive Notes and Sketches. Crown 4to,
handsomely bound in art canvas, gilt. Price 21s. each, net.

(1) KENT AND SUSSEX. Photographed by W. Galsworthy Davie and described

by E. Guy Dawber.

(2) SHROPSHIRE, HEREFORD, AND CHESHIRE. Photographed by James

Parkinson and described by E. A. Ould. Illustrates characteristic half-timber
buildings.

(3) THE COTSWOLD DISTRICT— Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Northants, and

Worcestershire. Photographed by W. Galsworthy Davie and described by
E. Guy Dawber. The buildings illustrated are of stone, and present a special
t)pe of domestic work.

(4) SURREY. Photographed by W. Galsw-orthy Davie and described by W. Curtis

Green, Architect, a. r. i.e. a.

FORMAL GARDENS IN ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND. A

Series of Views, Plans and Details of the finest Old Gardens still existing. With an
Introduction and Descriptive Accounts. By H. Inigo Triggs, a.r.i.b.a. Containing 125
Fine Plates. Folio, half morocco, gilt. Price jQ^ 4s, net.

GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. An Analysis of

English Church Architecture. By Francis Bond, m. a. 750 Pages, with 1254 Illustra-
tions from Photographs and Drawings, including 20 Collotypes and 469 Diagrams,
Mouldings, &c. Imperial 8vo, cloth gilt. Price 31s. 6d. net.

EARLY RENAISSANCE ARCHITECTURE IN ENGLAND. An

Account of the Tudor, Elizabethan, and Jacobean Periods, 1 500-1 625. By J. Alfred
GoTCH, F.s.A. With 87 Plates, and 230 smaller Illustrations from Drawings and Photo-
graphs. Large 8vo, cloth gilt. Price 21s. net.

ESSENTIALS IN ARCHITECTURE. An Analysis of the Principles
and Qualities to be looked for in Buildings. By John Belcher, a.r.a.. Fellow and Past
President of the Royal Institute of British Architects. With about 80 Illustrations
(mostly full-page) of Old and Modern Buildings. Large crown 8vo, cloth gilt.
Price 5s. net.

Mr. R. Norman Shaw, r.a., writes : — "I have read the proofs of this work with the
greatest interest. I am quite sure it will arouse enthusiasm in hundreds of readers, but
if it attracted only a dozen, it would not have been written in vain. Mr. Belcher wishes
his readers to think of Architecture — architecturally ; tells them how to do so, and no
one is more competent to teach theni."

A HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE ON THE COMPARATIVE

METHOD. By Banister Fletcher, f.r.i.b.a., late Professor of Architecture in King's
College, London, and Banister F. Fletcher, f.r.i.b.a. Fifth Edition, revised and
greatly enlarged. With about 2000 Illustrations. Demy Svo, cloth gilt. Price 21s. net.

A List of Books on Architecture and Decorative Art.
THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE RENAISSANCE IN ITALY. By

William J. Anderson, a.r.i.b.a. Third Edition, with 64 full-page Collotype and other
Plates, and nearly 100 smaller Illustrations in the text, from photographs and drawings.
Large 8vo, cloth, gilt. Price 12s. 6d. net.

MODERN COTTAGE ARCHITECTURE, Illustrated from Works of

well-known Architects. Edited, with an Essay on Cottage Building, and Descriptive
Notes by Maurice B. Adams, f.r.i.b.a. Containing 50 Plates of Views and Plans.
Royal 4to, cloth gilt. Price 10s. 6d. net.

A BOOK OF COUNTRY HOUSES. Containing 62 Plates, and Plans

of a variety of executed examples, ranging in size from a small Suburban House to a
fairly large Mansion. By Ernest Newton, Architect. Imperial 410. Price 21s. net.

MODERN SUBURBAN HOUSES. A Series of Examples Erected

from Designs by C. H. B. Quennell, Architect. Containing 44 Plates of Exterior and
Interior Views, and large scale Plans. Large 4to, cloth gilt Price 16s. net.

THE ART AND CRAFT OF GARDEN MAKING. By Thomas

H. Mawson, Garden Architect. Third Edition, revised and much enlarged. Containing
upwards of 250 Illustrations (50 full-page) of Views, Plans, Details, etc., of Gardens.
Large 4to, art canvas, gilt. Price 35s. net.

DECORATIVE PLANT AND FLOWER STUDIES. Uniform with

"Decorative Flower Studies." By J. Foord. Containing 40 Coloured Plates, with a
Description and Sketch of each Plant and 450 Studies of Growth and Detail. Imperial
4to, cloth gilt. Price 30s. net.

DECORATIVE FLOWER STUDIES for the use of Artists, Designers,

Students and others. A series of 40 Coloured Plates, accompanied by 350 Studies of
Detail. With Descriptive Notes. By J. Foord. Imperial 410. Price 25s. net.

Mr. Lewis F. Day's Handbooks of Ornamental Design.

ENAMELLING. A Comparative Account of the Development and
Practice of the Art. For the Use of Artists, Craftsmen, Students, etc. By Lewis Day.
Containing 214 Pages of Text. With 115 Illustrations. Demy 8vo, cloth gilt. Price
7s. 6d. net.

ORNAMENT AND ITS APPLICATION. A Book for Students,

treating in a practical way of the Relation of Design to Material, Tools, and Methods of
Work. By Lewis F. Day. Containing 320 Pages, with about 300 full-page and other
Illustrations. Demy 8vo, cloth gilt. Price 8s. 6d. net.

ART IN NEEDLEWORK. A book about Embroidery. For the use o

Needleworkers and other Students of Embroidery, and Designers for it. By Lewis F. Day
and Mary Buckle. Third Edition, revised and enlarged. Containing 81 full-page
Plates and 39 Illustrations in the text, together with a Special Chapter (new to this
edition) on White Work, with Illustrations. Crown 8vo, cloth. Price 5s. net.

PATTERN DESIGN. A Book for Students, treating in a practical way
the Anatomy, Planning, and Evolution of Repeated Ornament. Containing 300 pages
of text, with upwards of 300 Illustrations, reproduced from drawings and from photographs. '
Demy 8vo, cloth gilt. Price 7s. 6d. net.

A List of Books on Architecture and Decorative Art.
WINDOWS. — A BOOK ABOUT STAINED AND PAINTED

GLASS. By Lewis F. Day. Second Edition revised, containing 50 full-p.ige Plates and
200 Illustrations in the text. 400 Pages, large 8vo, cloth gilt. Price 21s. net.

The Most Handy, Useful, and Comprehensive Work on the Subject.

ALPHA'BETS, OLD AND NEW. Containing over 200 complete

Alphabets, 30 Scries of Numerals, and numerous Facsimiles of Ancient Dates. Selected
and arranged by Lewis F. Day. With Modern Examples specially designed by well-
known artists. Second Edition, revised and enlarged. Crown 8vo, art linen. Price
3s. 6d. net.

LETTERING IN ORNAMENT. An inquiry into the Decorative Use
of Lettering, Past, Present, and Possible. By Lewis F. Day. "With 200 Illustrations
from Photographs and Drawings. Crown 8vo, cloth. Price 5s. net.

A HANDBOOK OF ORNAMENT. With 300 Plates, containing about

3000 Illustrations of the Elements and Application of Decoration to Objects. By F. S.
Meyer. Third Edition, revised by Hugh Stannus, f.r.i.b.a. Thick 8vo, cloth gilt.
Price I2S. 6d.

HERALDRY AS ART. An Account of its Development and Practice,
chiefly in England. By George W. Eve. Containing 320 Pages, with 300 Illustrations
of Typical Heraldic Design, Old and New. Demy 8vo, cloth gilt. Price 12s. 6d. net.

JAPANESE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF DESIGN.

Book I. — Containing over 1500 Engraved Curios, and most ingenious Geometric
Patterns of Circles, Medallions, &c. Oblong i2nio, fancy covers. Price 2s. net.

Book II. — Containing over 600 most original and effective Designs for Diaper Orna-
ment, also artistic Miniature Sketches. Oblong i2mo. Price 2s. net.

A NEW SERIES OF BIRD AND FLOWER STUDIES. By

Watanabe Sietei. In three Books, containing numerous exceedingly artistic Sketches
in various tints. 8vo, fancy covers. Price los. net.

A DELIGHTFUL SERIES OF STUDIES OF BIRDS, in most

Characteristic and Life-like Attitude!:, surrounded with appropriate Foliage and
Flowers. By the celebrated Japanese Artist, Bairei Kono. In three Books, each con-
taining 36 Pages of Illustrations, printed in tints. Bound in fancy paper covers.
Price los. net.

OLD SILVERWORK, CHIEFLY ENGLISH, FROM THE XVth

TO THE XVIIIth CENTURIES. A Series of examples selected from a unique loan
collection, with further fine specimens from private collections. Edited by J. Starkie
Gardiner, f.s.a. Containing 121 Beautiful Collotype Plates. Folio, buckram, gilt.
Price £i, 5s. net.

OLD CLOCKS AND WATCHES AND THEIR MAKERS. Being

an Historical and Descriptive Account of the different Styles of Clocks and Watches of
the Past. By F. J. Britten. Second Edition, much enlarged, containing 740 Pages with
700 Illustrations. Medium 8vo, cloth gilt. Price15s.net.

A List of Books on Architecture and Decorative Art.
ENGLISH INTERIOR WOODWORK of the XVIth, XVIIth, and

XVIIIth Centuries. A series of 50 Plates of Drawings to scale, with full practical
details and descriptive text. By Henry Tanner, a.r.i.b.a., Joint Author of "Some
Architectural Works of Inigo Jones." Folio, cloth gilt. Price _2^i i6s.net.

PRACTICAL WOOD CARVING. By Eleanor Rowe. With 112

Illustrations from Photographs, and 55 from line drawings. Demy Svo, cloth, 240 Pages.
Price 7s. 6d. net.

OLD ENGLISH WOOD-CARVING PATTERNS. By Margaret

F. Malim. Comprising 30 Examples on 20 Plates. Imperial 4to, in portfolio. Price
8s. 6d. net.

WOOD-CARVING DESIGNS. By Muriel Moller. With a Foreword
by Walter Crane. Six Imperial Sheets Comprising 31 Working Drawings, 12 Photo-
graphs, and 20 Examples of Furniture. Large Imperial Svo, in cloth portfolio. Price
6s. net.

COLONIAL FURNITURE IN AMERICA. By Luke Vincent Lock-

WOOD. With 300 Illustrations of Chests, Couches, Sofas, Tables, Chairs, Settees,
Cupboards, Sideboards, Mirrors, Chests of Drawers, Bedsteads, Desks, &c. Demy 4to,
art linen gilt. Price j(^i 5s. net.

HEPPLEWHITE'S CABINET-MAKER AND UPHOLSTERER'S

GUIDE. A facsimile reproduction of this rare work, containing 300 charming Designs
on 128 Plates. Small folio, cloth gilt, old style. Price ^2 los. net. (1794.) Original
copies ivheti met ivith fetch from f^i"] to jQii.

ENGLISH FURNITURE DESIGNERS OF THE XVIIIth CEN-

TURY. By Constance Simon. Containing 200 Pages, with 62 full-page Illustrations.
Imperial Svo, cloth gilt. Price 15s. net.

OLD ENGLISH DOORWAYS. A Series of Historical Examples from
Tudor Times to the end of the XVIIIth Century. Illustrated on 70 Collotype Plates,
from Photographs specially taken by W. Galsworthy Davie. With Historical and
Descriptive Notes, including 34 Sketches by Henry Tanner, a.r.i.b.a.. Author of
"English Interior Woodwork." Large Svo, art canvas gilt. Price 15s. net.

FRENCH WOOD-CARVINGS FROM THE NATIONAL MUSEUMS.

A series of Examples printed in Collotype from Photographs from the Carvings. Edited
by Eleanor Rowe. Part I., Late 15th and Early i6th Century Examples ; Part II., i6th
Century Work ; Part III., 17th and iSth Centuries. The three Series complete, each
of 18 Plates, with Letterpress. Folio, in portfolios, price 12s. each net ; or handsomely
half-bound, ^z 5s. net.

NOTE.— A complete List of Books on Architecture, Decorative Art, etc., will be sent
post-free upon application.

B. T. Bx'\TSFORD, Publisher, 94 High Holborn, London

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